CDOT Plans Mid-Week Traffic Holds on Vail Pass Before July 4th

“Currently, we are planning for traffic holds on Wednesday-Thursday, July 8-9, and Monday-Tuesday, July 13-14.”

That is the message from Austin Dineen, CDOT’s Mountain Corridor Communications Manager, regarding the ongoing construction on Interstate 70. The good news for locals and visitors alike? The Fourth of July weekend itself is safe. The bad news is that the two weeks surrounding it will require patience.

The town of Vail is bracing for its busiest stretch of the summer. Between sporting events, big-name concerts, and Vail America Days, the traffic volume is already peaking. Now, officials are asking the public to navigate around a construction schedule that has been shifting into early July.

The project in question is CDOT’s five-year, $325 million West Vail Pass Auxiliary Lanes initiative. It’s adding an eastbound lane, installing wildlife fencing and underpasses, and building out avalanche and rockfall mitigation systems. To get the job done, CDOT has been executing 20-minute traffic holds in recent weeks.

Vail Mayor Pro Tem Reid Phillips didn’t mince words when he spoke with CDOT engineer John Kronholm during the town council’s afternoon work session.

“You talked about some construction holds in early July, which happens to be a pretty busy week for us. It’s our heaviest week of the summer,” Phillips said. “We would just love to make sure that whatever coordination with our town manager and public works director to mitigate that from our side would be great.”

The concern is valid. If you’re driving from Glenwood Springs or coming down from the pass for the Fourth of July fireworks, you don’t want to be stuck in a queue while helicopters shuttle materials overhead. But according to Dineen, CDOT has learned its lesson from the spring.

“For impacts of this scale, we intentionally target low-travel periods and strictly avoid weekends and holidays due to the high volume of traffic on the corridor,” Dineen said.

The holds themselves are necessary. Rock scaling and blasting are happening between 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. In early July, the work shifts to helicopter operations to shuttle materials up for the avalanche fences. Helicopters can’t bounce their schedules around easily, which is why the holds are clustered on specific weekdays rather than spread out evenly.

Dineen confirmed that six to nine holds per day are expected on July 8-9 and July 13-14. That’s a lot of stops, but they are timed to avoid the rush hours that clog the corridor during the actual holiday weekend.

Kronholm noted that Austin Dineen was actually stuck in one of these traffic holds on Vail Pass at the time of the meeting, a detail that drew laughs from the council. It’s a small reminder that the people managing the traffic are often subject to it.

Locals need to stay informed. CDOT is sending out a weekly newsletter on Fridays, and you can subscribe to text alerts by texting “vailpass” to 21000. The project is slated to wrap up by December, so there is a finish line, even if it feels distant when you’re sitting in a 20-minute hold on a Tuesday afternoon.

The question is whether the town’s coordination efforts will be enough to keep visitors from getting frustrated. Phillips emphasized that the town wants to ensure visitors are aware of any additional holds extending beyond late June. It’s a communication challenge on top of a construction challenge.

Dineen promised an “extra communications push” as the holiday approaches. If the past few weeks are any indication, that push will need to be loud. The holds are real, the timing is tight, and the traffic is heavy. But for those four days of July 4-7, the road should move.

“We anticipate six to nine holds per day on those dates,” Dineen said. “There may be a few more holds in the fall, but those details are still TBD.”

For now, the message is clear: Plan for the mid-week delays in July. Avoid the weekend. And keep your phone handy for those text alerts.