US 34 Canyon Reopens for Good on Thursday, May 24

US 34 Big Thompson Canyon. Image Credit: CDOT 

Big Thompson Canyon, between Loveland and Estes Park, is reopening next week to all through traffic, following years of intermittent closures to repair damage caused during the 2013 floods.

The project was completed 18 months ahead of the original schedule through an accelerated plan restricting traffic in the off-season to local permitted drivers. Since the canyon closed in October 2018, Kiewit Infrastructure Co. has installed 95,000 cubic yards of rock to protect the roadway from flooding erosion, twenty-thousand linear feet of river improvements, and 4,000 linear feet of new drainage pipe. The Horseshoe Bridge structures were also completed. Together, these improvements will increase the resiliency of US 34 to future flooding events and provide protected emergency routes.

While the long-term closures have come to an end, additional work will continue through the fall to finalize the project. Drivers may encounter up to 20-minute delays for paving work, and there will be limited night-time closures to set bridge girders for four new access bridges.

Read more from CDOT and on the Coloradoan.