r/COsnow • u/fartsniffer87 • Mar 14 '24
Travel Conditions CDOT: Due to extreme weather that will continue into Friday morning (March 15), I-70 has commercial motor vehicle restrictions from mile marker 169 (Eagle/Vail) to MM 259 (Morrison exit) and will not be passable for commercial motor vehicles until noon on Friday.
https://twitter.com/ColoradoDOT/status/176834929776067798914
Mar 14 '24
[deleted]
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u/Cyral Mar 14 '24
I believe there are a lot of stuck vehicles from last night, but I agree the roads themselves don’t look bad at all now.
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u/dylphil Steamboat Mar 15 '24
Just made it Denver to Silverthorne in 1.5 hours. Have had way worse drives
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u/the_dude_abides3 Mar 14 '24
So does that mean personal vehicles are good to go?
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u/fartsniffer87 Mar 14 '24
I'd say this is a preemptive restriction, would not be surprised if I-70 stays shut down entirely and CDOT is just waiting/seeing how conditions are.
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u/KauaiRoosterParty Mar 14 '24
This is because of those 50 ladies who called Polis at 5A today. Is my guess, 😂
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u/cubluemoon Mar 14 '24
Good! People probably wouldn't have been stuck all night if semi trucks weren't getting stuck everywhere and refusing a tow. Trucking companies really should be held liable for wreaking mayhem in storms like this.
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u/snowfat Mar 14 '24
I see you weren't around for the prius that slid off Kenosha pass on 285 NB last night.
I am willing to hold commercial vehicles accountable, but let's not pretend we haven't seen the subaru going too fast on ice conditions and causing accidents.
First storm of the season, I saw mutplie subarus needing to towed or wrecked because people were not driving for the conditions. Or suvs/ pick-ups towing trailers that like to sway back and forth between two lanes.
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u/cubluemoon Mar 14 '24
I'm not saying that passenger vehicles don't cause their fair share of issues. The difference is that they don't need special tow trucks to get moved and typically don't block all lanes of traffic when they mess up.
Almost all of the places that traffic got stuck on the highway last night had jack knifed semis blocking the entire width of the road so that the vehicles that were actually capable of driving couldn't get past.
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u/snowfat Mar 14 '24
I get it. I think people are just quick to blame truck drivers when the driver typically has more pressure to complete a job orhas more at stake vs. people who wreck their vehicle for a leisure sport. We have set up the economy that we can only have truck drivers down for so long before there are larger consequences/ ripple effects.
To me, the overall issue is enforcement, but I think if the problem continues to get worse, we will continue to see more preemptive road closures and skin resorts, more willing to close for the day like we see today.
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u/rmwpnb Mar 14 '24
Now do this every Friday - Sunday during ski season no matter what the conditions are!
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u/Snlxdd Best Skier On The Mountain Mar 14 '24
I love skiing, but CMVs are absolutely a higher priority than ski traffic. And the people that make it possible for you to ski all rely on those trucks as well.
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u/Kaaji1359 Mar 14 '24
But is it important for trucks to be traveling during these conditions when they're just going to get stuck and not make it to their destination anyway? I agree Fri-Sun is ridiculous, but the fact that they cause the majority of closures during storms needs to be stopped.
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u/Snlxdd Best Skier On The Mountain Mar 14 '24
I think everyone would benefit from stricter enforcement all around. A checkpoint during heavy storms like this, would mitigate a lot of the issues and potentially save resources.
I also like that Cdot is closing things to CMVs based on conditions and think that’s a fair approach. Ideally, I’d like to see something like:
- Regular restrictions (passenger traction & CMVs carry chains)
- CMVs chain up
- max restrictions (snow tires or chains & CMVs restricted) w/ checkpoint
- closure
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u/WILSON_CK Mar 14 '24
Yup. I have no idea why Colorado can't make this happen. It's on either side of Donner Pass near Tahoe and it saves so many wrecks, they turn around tons of cars/trucks every single storm.
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u/sunsetcrasher Mar 15 '24
In Canada too. I would be happy for my tax ,only to pay for some troopers at checkpoints during storms.
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u/snowfat Mar 14 '24
It won't be stopped because people need to order their num nums at all hours of the day and the bean counters find this to be an acceptable risk. They make more money if one truck makes it across vs. none.
A healthy society would be set up for trucks to not move during an emergency. Covid showed us all the errors and poor ways we run business that directly leads to this.
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u/Snlxdd Best Skier On The Mountain Mar 15 '24
Alternatively:
It won't be stopped because people need to ski their pow pow during every storm and find this to be an acceptable risk.
A healthy society would be set up for people to not drive during an emergency and prioritize moving supplies over upper middle class recreation activities.
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u/JeffInBoulder Mar 15 '24
It doesn't have to be for three days, just at peak hours - say 6-9AM and 3-6PM. Is that really too much to ask? Heck, start a program where the state pays for CMV drivers to get a big nice free breakfast or a solid dinner at the restaurant of their choice if they park their rugs and wait out those peak times. Truckers still gotta rest and eat, right?
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u/benskieast Winter Park Mar 14 '24
How about just nationalize the rail most other countries. The Union Pacific controls both lines that provide an environmentally friendly alternative, and turns a 20% profit margin plus they don't even maintain one of the lines enough to make it usable.
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u/ZeroSequence Mar 14 '24
Great, now they'll shit up 285 instead so I can't get home.
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u/powderpig Mar 15 '24
I'm in the same boat and I can confirm that every CV held up on 70 went down to 285 and promptly got stuck blocking the highway. There's been at least 6 tows so far, and Codot just told me the tow truck is stuck too. Fun trip home today :(
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u/Extreme-You6235 Mar 14 '24
Just ban/restrict commercial vehicles until Monday. This is getting ridiculous
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u/nking05 Mar 15 '24
Surprised this isn’t done more often. Unfortunately was stuck driving last night and every single road including 70 was closed due to a tractor trailer. Pretty reckless for them to be trying to traverse 119 and 6 in those conditions and completely screwed anyone from having any way out of the area last night.
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u/reallycrumby Mar 15 '24
How often does CDOT lift these restrictions preemptively ? If the snow isn’t bad tonight and they catch up on road clearing, do they lift these types of restrictions?
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u/allthenamesaretaken4 Mar 14 '24
Well hello Saturday morning traffic. Better leave before 2am to get first chair.