Overturned truck causes 5-hour shutdown of South Frontage Road in Vail

A truck hauling a load of rocks overturned in the roundabout at South Frontage Road and the Vail I-70 Sandstone Underpass at about 4:45 p.m. on Friday, requiring a massive cleanup effort of the heavy material. No injuries were reported.

The road closure snarled traffic in Vail for more than 5 hours as access was blocked between the Lionshead and Cascade Village areas of Vail south of Interstate 70. The road reopened at about 10 p.m.

The I-70 Sandstone Underpass roundabout opened in 2017 and was intended to create ease of travel for vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians, and connect the community by reducing travel time between the North and South Frontage Roads.

But the project also created steep hills on the Frontage Roads where they had not previously existed, in order to direct traffic beneath the interstate. In snowy conditions, like the Vail area was seeing on Friday night, those hills can get slick for motorists approaching the roundabouts.

The National Weather Service’s Grand Junction office issued a winter weather advisory for the Vail area on Friday, expected to last through Sunday.

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“Roads, and especially bridges and overpasses, will likely become slick and hazardous,” according to the advisory. “Travel could be very difficult.”