Interstate 70 in the mountains has a big trucking problem. Are there any new solutions?

It seems like there have been more heavy truck accidents this winter on Interstate 70 in Eagle County. Those accidents are more than inconvenient.

A Jan. 7 heavy truck accident on westbound I-70 shut down those lanes for about five hours. Another accident in West Vail on Jan. 22 stranded people in Vail for hours, forcing Red Sandstone Elementary School to open to local students and parents.

Some help is on the way in Dowd Junction, but not until warmer weather allows Colorado Department of Transportation crews to paint lanes in compliance with a new law limiting trucks to the right lane. That law, passed by the 2024 Colorado legislature, will limit heavy trucks to the right lane in Dowd Junction, as well as on the downhill stretches of Vail Pass, the Eisenhower-Johnson Tunnels, Georgetown Hill and Floyd Hill.

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Sen. Dylan Roberts, who represents Eagle County at the state Capitol, was the primary sponsor of that bill. Roberts said that the bill didn’t become law until Sept. 1, too late to put down paint.

A good example in the canyon

Roberts noted the success of similar painting in Glenwood Canyon, noting that when CDOT crews put down paint limiting trucks to the right lane, “things immediately improved.”

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Roberts in this session is sponsoring another safety-related bill regarding trucks, Senate Bill 69.

Along with fellow Sen. Mark Catlin, a Montrose Republican, that bill would authorize third-party vendors to set up on-chain stations along mountainous stretches of I-70. For a fee, those vendors would install or sell and install chains or other traction devices on heavy trucks.

Roberts said a similar system works well in California, Washington and Oregon.

A second part of that bill would also require rental car companies to notify customers about the state’s traction laws.

Roberts said the Colorado Motor Carriers Association, which represents the state’s trucking industry, supports this bill.

The I-70 Coalition, a nonprofit group that represents local governments and business interests along the mountain corridor, agreed that the trucking group wants to be “part of the conversation” regarding winter safety on the interstate.

Margaret Bowes, the nonprofit’s executive director, said the coalition wants to be a “convener” for that conversation.

“We continue to see issues with (trucks) not following the chain laws,” Bowes said, adding that it seems that out-of-state drivers seem to be some of the biggest violators.

Bowes noted that it’s only a half-joke that some of the drivers who don’t know the right procedures for mounting chains are seen on roadsides and chain stations in shorts and sandals in winter weather.

Still, she added, there are many factors regarding the state’s traction laws. And enforcement is tricky, she added, especially since the Colorado State Patrol is “horribly understaffed.”

One of the big ones is that declaring the law to be in effect is something a human has to determine.

“Maybe in the future that can be more data-driven,” she said.

The truckers want to help

Greg Fulton is the longtime director of the Colorado Motor Carriers Association.

In a telephone conversation, Fulton said the issue of trucker safety “is more challenging than people imagine.”

While Fulton said Roberts’ current bill is a good idea, there’s a lot more involved in safety, much of which involves maneuvering around cars. Even a chained-up big truck has a hard time getting started again if that big rig has been stopped by a stalled-out passenger car, Fulton said.

And, he added, Colorado should be checking for chains or snow tires on all vehicles, not just trucks.

In addition, the I-70 corridor doesn’t have enough places to park heavy trucks in cases when the interstate is shut down. A driver can spend almost an hour just looking for a place to park in cases of a highway shutdown, he said.

“We need to find the best possible way to keep the corridor open,” Fulton said. But, he added, just banning trucks on the highway won’t work.

About half of all the truck traffic on the I-70 corridor is intrastate, Fulton said. And when the weather turns bad, “The drivers would rather not be out there, either.”