Travelers expecting to be stuck for several hours on either side of Glenwood Canyon today actually got a reprieve due to high winds that forced CDOT to push back the rockfall mitigation work that was scheduled to completely close the canyon for a second straight day.
CDOT closed the canyon yesterday and began the work of installing several heavy-duty rockfall fences near the Hanging Lake Tunnel, but heavy downdrafts grounded the helicopter that was needed to transport some of the fencing materials into the canyon. The canyon will remain open as normal all day today, and CDOT will look at rescheduling the work for another 2-day period, possibly in August.
Pitkin County Sheriff’s deputies and Aspen police had their hands full in dealing with the extra traffic that tried to detour around the closure by going over Independence pass. . . officers had to turn away 20 oversized vehicles that tried to start up the pass despite the year-round 35-foot length restriction.
And even though CDOT had advised not to try to use Cottonwood Pass as an alternate route, two semis tried the road anyway and stalled out. One of them jacknifed, shutting down all traffic for over two hours.
