YOUR AD HERE »

Summer delays worth it

Vail Daily Editorial Board
Vail CO, Colorado

Summer’s almost over. Winter is just around the corner.

Temperatures this summer were hot, but not record-breaking. Precipitation was low, but not a drought. Road construction on a super-busy stretch of our valley’s chunk of I-70 is a little tougher than last year’s Edwards-area repaving project.

Road construction this summer has been tough, particularly between Dowd Junction and Vail. Of course, those construction crews were doing something, it’s just sometimes tough to tell exactly what they are doing.



On a Wednesday afternoon at 5:30 p.m. it became quite clear that most locals in the valley figured out that if you get on the Minturn exit onto I-70 going east, the delays weren’t nearly as long.

In turn, that nugget of knowledge caused some back-ups at both the Eagle-Vail stoplight all the way to the Wal-Mart roundabout on Highway 6. In a valley that is virtually traffic-free, a few delays now and then aren’t a huge deal. Waiting for an extra cycle at the stoplight is nothing compared to the traffic jams during Denver’s rush hour.

Support Local Journalism



Sitting in that traffic for 30 minutes, sun beating down, inching along, swearing at motorists trying to cut in front of you, will all make sense once the winter starts.

Those roads in Dowd Junction are constantly under repair. And it’s a good thing, too, because it’s one of the hotspots for I-70 accidents in Colorado. Smoothing out that particular stretch of road will make it easier for snowplows to remove snow and therefore make the highway just a little safer.

Spending a little time in traffic now will result in spending a little less time in traffic in the winter.

So ease up locals, the payoff comes when the snow flies.

” Austin Richardson for the Editorial Board


Support Local Journalism