Dowd Junction eastbound closes for more than 5 hours Saturday
Interstate 70 reopened in Dowd Junction at around 11 p.m. Saturday after a more than five-hour closure that left vehicles stranded in EagleVail and Avon throughout the evening.
The closure occurred at mile marker 171 as the result of a traffic accident, and vehicles were directed off the interstate while crews worked to clean up the narrow Dowd Canyon, which has no other means of passage aside from the interstate.
Trooper Gabriel Moltrer with the Colorado State Patrol said the crash was a multi-vehicle accident that occurred just after 5:30 p.m., and no one was transported to the hospital.
Slick road conditions necessitated the help of the Colorado Department of Transportation in reopening the highway, Moltrer said, with a layer of sand applied to the roadway before traffic was allowed back through.
A hazardous weather outlook was issued by the National Weather Service for the Eagle County area early Saturday morning, and that outlook will remain in effect until Friday.
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The worst of the conditions is likely to come on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service’s Grand Junction office.
“Light snowfall is expected over the northern mountains Tuesday and Tuesday night with the passage of fast moving upper-level disturbance,” according to the outlook issued Saturday.
