Updated at 4:50 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 25, 2023:
I-70 reopened around 4:43 p.m.
Our original story continues below.
Danger from loose rocks led the Colorado Department of Transportation to close a section of Interstate 70 near Idaho Springs on Thursday afternoon.
CDOT also had closed part of U.S. 40, which parallels I-70, but reopened that shortly after 4 p.m.
An agency spokeswoman didn’t know when I-70 would reopen.
The latest information is available at COtrip, the state’s real-time travel website. Google Maps showed traffic backing up for miles around the closure as of Thursday at 4 p.m.
CDOT closed the roads after blasting work that’s part of the massive expansion of I-70 at Floyd Hill, a steep climb near Idaho Springs that’s notorious for traffic backups.
Work crews noticed a rock slab coming loose over the highway and made the call to close the roads, “just in case any chunks of rock were to fall,” said CDOT’s Presley Fowler.
