Southern Colorado residents who watched the Spring Creek Fire sweep across the Sangre de Cristo Mountains last summer now look worriedly at the more than 108,000 acres of charred land. This year, they vigilantly watch for rain clouds. Even a quarter inch of rain pouring onto those devastated slopes could bring a new disaster to […]
Colorado Department of Transportation
Posted inCulture, News, Outdoors, Outsider
Showers, catered meals, wine lists: Colorado’s newest backcountry ski huts are following Euro and Canadian model
RED MOUNTAIN PASS — Their moms were not pleased with the plan. Four 20-something pals from the Midwest were preparing to go backcountry skiing in the San Juans, around Red Mountain Pass. Their parents had read news reports of an avalanche — the first of the Colorado season — involving a student in an avalanche-education […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Loveland Pass is a much-safer — and only minutes-slower — option than risking a catastrophe in tunnel
In response to: “Hazmat drivers want off Loveland Pass.” As a 40-year truck driver who retired two years ago, I spent 30 years as a hazmat-tanker driver, hauling cryogenic liquids and chemicals, with 25 of those years hauling gasoline. I ran all Colorado mountain passes in all weather conditions. All of Colorado’s mountain passes are […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Technology, Transportation
Colorado’s internet of roads is a go. Soon cars will “talk” to signs and traffic signals
A plan to turn a portion of Interstate 70 into a roadway where cars communicate with street lights, signs and other internet-connected things just tripled to more than 500 miles. Colorado’s “internet of roads” project will now extend to highways that reach from Pueblo to Wyoming, and Sterling to Utah, after the state Department of […]
Posted inEnvironment, Health, News, Transportation
CDOT will cover cost of health study for Denver’s most polluted neighborhoods in I-70 project settlement
Residents of Denver’s three most polluted neighborhoods couldn’t block an expansion of Interstate 70 that forced some from their homes. But as a result of their federal lawsuit, the state has agreed to a long-term health study to find out whether toxins in the air and soil are making them sick. As part of a […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Technology, Transportation
Much-hyped high-speed transit company Arrivo has hit the brakes in Colorado
High-speed transit company Arrivo has ended plans to turn an unused E-470 toll station in Commerce City into a test track for speeding pods to combat traffic congestion. Highway officials said Monday that the Los Angeles company pulled out of the project months ago. “What I do know is that earlier this year (in mid-June), […]
Posted inBusiness, Crime and Courts, News, Politics and Government, Transportation
Two Iranians indicted in hacking scheme that held CDOT computers hostage and cost Colorado up to $2 million
A federal grand jury has indicted two Iranian men accused of holding the Colorado Department of Transportation’s computer system hostage earlier this year as part of a wide-reaching international computer hacking and extortion scheme. The malware infected critical systems nationwide, including hospitals, and extorted more than 200 victims who paid the attackers $6 million, according […]
Posted inColoradans, Health, News, Transportation
CDOT invested nearly $1 million in federal funds to explore personal breathalyzers as an antidote to drunken driving. Can technology win out?
Mike Linquist was hanging out at a friend’s house last summer with some buddies, watching a game and drinking beer, although he allows that “there may have been some shots involved.” It got late and most of the friends left. Linquist crashed in a spare room. The next morning, rested but hung over, he reached […]