I just listened to CDOT's press conference re the Glenwood Canyon closure. The link to the recording is
here.
My takeaways are:
1. This is the longest Glenwood Canyon closure since I-70 opened through there in 1995 (10 days and counting). The previous record was a rockfall event that closed it for 7 days in 2016.
2. Executive Director Shoshana Lew said the reopening would be measured in days, not weeks. She said they'll know better in the next 24 hours with the storms and rainfall about providing a reopening date.
3. I-70 was under construction already and there was two-lane traffic in the eastbound lanes prior to the fire. The eastbound lanes have little to no damage. The westbound lanes have a different vantage point and were described as Armageddon. They are concerned about mudslides and additional rockfall as a result of the fire.
4. Traffic has been good at not trying to blow through the I-70 closures. Oddly enough, emergency vehicles and permitted traffic have caused accidents in the closure zone, mostly due to distraction and awe of the fire.
5. They are still turning around trucks that are trying to detour across Independence Pass, though the new flagging operations make them turn around before the tight spots. They are working with the navigation companies with marking these inappropriate detour routes, but for some reason they keep defaulting back to being marked as open routes for trucks. Before they closed Independence Pass, over 70 trucks got stuck/needed turned around there.
6. A reporter asked about improving Cottonwood Pass (the one between Eagle and Garfield counties, not the more famous one from Buena Vista to Gunnison County) as an alternate route for I-70 closures. Director Lew stated she couldn't comment on routes in general, but they know the I-70 corridor has a lack of resiliency for alternate routes when the canyon is closed, even for general weather events.