Eastbound drivers on Interstate 70 at Floyd Hill should be aware that the Colorado Department of Transportation often closes the highway from sunrise until about 8:30 a.m. because of blinding sun glare from November through February.

The sun’s angle, in combination with the hill and the highway’s configuration, can create a blinding sun glare for drivers as they head east up Floyd Hill (about Mile Points 244 to 248 – east of Idaho Springs).

The closures average around 45 minutes to an hour and can occur when intense sun glare begins around sunrise and lasts until around 8:30 a.m.

CDOT diverts traffic off the highway when a sun glare safety closure is in place during the morning commute along eastbound I-70:

• Traffic headed eastbound on I-70 will be rerouted at Exit 244 (U.S. 6)  is at the bottom of Floyd Hill.
• Motorists can either stay the course on US 6 through Clear Creek Canyon, or they can take the eastbound I-70 frontage road (U.S. 40) and get back onto I-70 at Beaver Brook (Exit 248).
• Truckers should be aware, there are height restrictions in the tunnels along US 6 Clear Creek Canyon, therefore freight trucks should use U.S. 40.
• Drivers who use U.S. 40 for the detour route should also be aware of the work zone for the U.S. 40 Roundabouts project – although active work won’t be happening during the sun glare safety closures please drive with extra caution along this route.

For more information visit codot.gov/travel/sunglare

Sergeant Major Donald Enloe, a 30-year veteran of the Colorado State Patrol told The Denver Gazette in an interview that even though the glare problem has existed since the four-mile segment on Floyd Hill was completed in 1975, it began to be a bigger problem as Summit County flourished economically in the early 2000s.

“Semis creep uphill eastbound, some move into the middle lane to pass,” said Enloe. “Meanwhile we have cars and pickups flying up the hill, also moving into the middle lane to pass the slowpoke ahead of them. The technical term is flow conflict.”

“I wouldn’t want to be quoted for what I call the end result,” Enloe added.

The increase in commuters who worked in Summit County but couldn’t afford to live there and two new schools built on the summit of Floyd Hill increased the number of accidents, peaking in December 2002, and that triggered a hard look at the problem.

“What really set it off was in the first couple of weeks of December 2002. Between 7:45 and 8 a.m. we had eight crashes on Floyd Hill eastbound,” said Enloe.

On November 26, 2003, a local man from Empire crashed into the back of a semi that was hauling pipe and was killed, according to Enloe.

In October 2003, citizens, law enforcement and CDOT got together to try to come up with some answers. But it wasn’t until a decade later that the shutdowns and diversions started.

“We started the actual shutdowns in 2013,” said Enloe. “So, up until then we were just patrolling the area. We were making sure that any vehicle that was broken down on the side of the road was taken out of the way, so cars weren’t going to slam into it.”

“We were just doing it during the school days, but we found that it was necessary to move it to seven days a week,” Enloe added.

Nowadays it’s boots on the ground — CDOT maintenance crews and state troopers — on sunny mornings on the hill.

“Generally, we have at least a corporal up there that make the determination we’re going to do it,” said Enloe. “We get the word out; we light up the signboards.”

“The locals have gotten pretty good to know if it’s sunny out, they know it’s going to happen,” Enloe said. “And it’s particularly bad on mornings when the road is wet or when there’s a lot of liquid de-icer on the highway that creates an extra sheen. So you’ve got a double whammy there.”

Enloe, who’s been around a while, remembered the Valley Curtain art installation by the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude across the Rifle Gap seven miles north of Rifle in the 1970s.

He suggested a curtain at the top of Floyd Hill to block the sun at a recent meeting.

“I brought that up in the big meeting a couple of weeks ago,” said Enloe. “I mentioned Christo and all these young engineers went, ‘what are you talking about?’ I talked to the CDOT project engineer last week. I asked him to put a big curtain up. He said he doesn’t have the money.”