Snowstorm could ‘kickstart’ travel ahead of Presidents Day weekend, with up to 2 hour delays expected on I-70

Colorado transportation officials are warning travelers to plan ahead as a snowstorm is inbound ahead of what is often one of the busiest weekends for ski travel on the Interstate 70 mountain corridor.

With up to a foot of snow in the forecast for many popular ski resorts, Colorado Department of Transportation Traffic Operations Manager Rod Mead said the storm could “kickstart the entire rush up into the mountains” for the Presidents Day weekend.

“The truth is it’s going to be busy because it’s always busy on Presidents Day Weekend,” Mead said in a video update on the weekend traffic conditions. “You’ve got three days off and a chance to go skiing, and people are going to take advantage of that.”

I-70 Coalition Director Jonathan Godes said that over the past three years, the Presidents Day holiday has seen delays of two hours or more, especially when snowstorms attract skiers to the mountains for the long weekend.

Last year on President’s Day weekend, two back-to-back storms resulted in crashes, extended road closures, and traffic jams throughout the I-70 mountain corridor. That weekend last year included drivers disregarding closures on U.S. Highway 6’s Loveland Pass, where a vehicle was caught in an avalanche, and an intoxicated driver who fled law enforcement in Summit County onto I-70, which was already jam-packed with traffic.

“Memorial, Labor Day, and Presidents Day are the top tier weekends of traffic and congestion on I-70 getting to the high country,” Godes said. “Even if this was a bluebird weekend that had no weather complications, we’d be seeing huge traffic.”

Amid what has been a record-low season for snowfall in Colorado, this snowstorm is expected to bring up several inches to the resorts but could also result in mixed precipitation at lower elevations under about 9,000 feet, according to forecasters.

OpenSnow Meteorologist Sam Collentine wrote in a report for the I-70 corridor that while much of the snow is expected to fall by Thursday afternoon, there could be a short wave of snow on Friday and icy, wet, and snow-packed roads could last through Saturday morning.

Mead said the transportation department will have its snowplows out in “full force” this weekend to handle the storm, but drivers should expect delays due to the holiday weekend traffic and people “heading up to the higher elevations to enjoy some of that fresh snow.”

On Friday, he said drivers should expect an uptick in traffic in the morning and then an even bigger surge that evening as people get off work. On Saturday and Sunday, he said drivers can expect delays on westbound I-70 heading up to the mountains from the Denver area in the morning, especially near Floyd Hill.

On Sunday and Monday evenings drivers can expect eastbound traffic heading back to Denver from the mountains to pile up near the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnels, he said. He noted that this is because day-trippers will be driving back to the Front Range, as well as those who stayed in town.

“What happens normally on a Presidents Day weekend is we kind of have a double Sunday,” Mead said. “What I mean by that (is) we’ll have a certain amount of people who will come back and create some congestion especially around the Eisenhower tunnel on Sunday, and then we’ll have another report of that on Monday.”

To avoid the worst congestion on I-70, Godes suggested hitting the road before noon on Friday and before 6 a.m. or after 11 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. On Monday morning, the traffic is not expected to be “horrific,” but it will get worse throughout the day as people leave the ski resorts, he said.

Anyone driving on I-70 this weekend should be prepared for winter driving conditions and be compliant with Colorado’s passenger vehicle traction law, according to the transportation department.

Drivers should also pack warm clothes, snacks, water, and other essentials in case they are trapped in traffic for hours on end due to an emergency, like a semitrailer blocking the road, Godes said. He noted that it is also important to have a full tank of gas or a fully-charged battery before leaving.

He encouraged drivers to carpool to the mountain with friends or take public transportation options like the train to Winter Park or bus options, like the Bustang and Snowstang, to reduce congestion on the interstate.

To check for up-to-date road conditions, drivers can visit COTrip.org or download the state’s COTrip Planner app.

“Just prepare for the (traffic) that we’ve all been in because they’re not black swan events — they happen quite regularly,” Godes said. “We forget that they happen because we just haven’t had a lot of snow this winter, but this is a weekend that is going to remind us that we live in Colorado.”