CDOT Opens Vail Pass Bike Path on West Side Today

June 7, 2011 - Northwestern Colorado/CDOT Region 3 - EAGLE COUNTY – Colorado Department of Transportation maintenance crews cleared snow piles with the use of loaders, snow blowers and plenty of man-hours over the past few weeks.

The west side of the Vail Pass bike path (from near the summit at MP 189 down to MP 180) was opened today (the east side had already been open).

“Our crews will continue to sweep and we’ll do our best to keep the path open – it all depends upon the weather,” CDOT Eagle Area Maintenance Supervisor Jim Achatz said. “We’ve used the snow blower for the past week and a half moving drifts up to 15 feet high—this has been a big deal.”

I-70 REST AREA CLOSURES: Due to high water in other areas, CDOT has temporarily closed the rest areas at Bair Ranch (east of Glenwood Canyon at MP 128.5) and at Rifle (Garfield County), where crews have also built a clay-soil berm at the river to help mitigate flooding at nearby homes.

GET CDOT TRAVEL INFORMATION DURING UNPREDICTABLE SPRING WEATHER: To help motorists (and bicyclists) plan ahead, CDOT offers an e-mail and text message service that is free of charge.  Motorists (and media) can receive updates on road conditions, construction projects and other CDOT news.  Signing up to receive updates is easy and free (standard text messaging rates apply) and can be completed in three simple steps.

1. Visit our Web site at www.coloradodot.info and click on the icon in upper right corner entitled "Sign up for Email and Wireless Alerts."

2. Enter your e-mail address and decide if you want your account password protected and if you want to receive e-mail, text alerts or both (not all items are available as a text alert).

3. First time subscribers are then presented with a list of all subscription items available. All you have to do is select the updates you want to receive and hit "Submit."

Motorists can also log on to CDOT’s traveler information web site at www.cotrip.org or call 511 from anywhere in the state.