CDOT Launches $4 Million Fire Mitigation Project on Five Colorado Highways

The air in Clear Creek Canyon still holds the damp, heavy scent of pine needles and wet earth, even as the first true heat of May begins to bake the asphalt on Colorado 119. It’s a specific kind of humidity that clings to your skin, a reminder that the drought gripping the state isn’t just a statistic on a weather map — it’s a physical weight pressing down on the landscape. Just north of Golden, where the Sawmill Trail winds through dense thickets of trees, the overgrowth feels less like a forest and more like a fuel tank waiting for a spark.

That tension between the beauty of the high country and the threat of its destruction is what CDOT is trying to manage with a $4 million emergency tree-cutting project launching this week. It’s not a gentle thinning for aesthetic purposes; it’s an aggressive, urgent intervention aimed at reducing the risk of catastrophic fires before the summer intensifies. With wildfire season looming and temperatures rising, crews will begin cutting trees along some of the state’s busiest highways, targeting five specific routes identified as having the highest risk for wildfires this summer.

If you drive up 119 toward Nederland, or head west on 72 through Coal Creek Canyon past Pinecliffe, you’re going to see the work. Contractors are cutting trees Monday through Thursday, advancing about three miles per day, operating between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. You’ll need to slow down, follow the flaggers, and stay alert. It’s a disruption to your commute, a temporary inconvenience for what officials are calling a critical step in protecting infrastructure and the communities these roads serve. Jim Fox, CDOT’s deputy director of maintenance, put it plainly in a statement: “Reducing fuel loads along our highway corridors is a critical step in protecting both our infrastructure and the communities these roads serve.”

This is the first time CDOT has conducted a fire mitigation project of this magnitude, according to a spokesperson. The scale is significant because the conditions are dire. As of Tuesday, the entire state was experiencing at least abnormally dry conditions, but if you look closer at the data, the situation is far more severe. About 15% of the state is facing exceptional drought, while 47% is in extreme drought. That’s not just dry grass; that’s a landscape primed to burn. Governor Jared Polis urged the state to prepare during a news conference last month, citing the drought paired with the long-term consequences of a changing climate as the primary drivers of vulnerability.

The five highways targeted for this initial push are specific, high-traffic arteries that cut through some of the most scenic, yet most dangerous, terrain in the state. Beyond 119 and 72, the project covers Colorado 93 between Golden and Boulder, Colorado 128 near the junction with 93 west of Broomfield, and Colorado 67 from Woodland Park north toward Westcreek. Each of these corridors has its own history, its own traffic patterns, and its own unique fire behavior. For locals who commute these routes daily, the work zones mean a different rhythm to your morning drive — a shift from the flow of traffic to the stop-and-go cadence of construction.

There’s a warmth to the anticipation of summer here, but it’s the warmth of a fever, not a welcome breeze. The project is expected to continue through the end of June, giving crews just enough time to clear the most critical fuel loads before the peak of fire season. CDOT noted that additional highways may be added to the project if funding allows, suggesting this effort might extend beyond the initial five routes as resources permit.

As the sun sets over the Rockies, casting long shadows through the thinned trees along 119, the silence that follows the day’s work is different than it was before. The air feels lighter, less choked with the dense undergrowth that once threatened to swallow the road whole. It’s a small change, a temporary reprieve, but it’s a tangible one. You can feel the difference in the way the wind moves through the branches, carrying the scent of fresh-cut wood and the promise of a safer summer, one mile at a time.