Talk about a tough job.
For hours on end these past two weeks, Colorado Department of Transportation workers have responded with incredible flexibility and speed to ever-changing conditions along Interstate 70 in Glenwood Canyon.
They have coordinated with numerous other agencies — the U.S. Forest Service, Garfield and Eagle counties, the city of Glenwood Springs, Colorado State Patrol, National Weather Service and more — to keep motorists safe and traffic moving.
But there’s only so much they or anyone can do about the 30,000-acre Grizzly Creek Fire burn scar that scoured parts of the canyon and Flat Tops. Lacking vegetation to hold it in place, soils throughout the area are easily swept onto I-70 — during heavy rains such as what we’ve experienced recently.