Nearly two months after the initial rockfall incident that closed Glenwood Canyon, crews have completed the necessary repairs to get Interstate 70 open to four lanes of travel, the Colorado Department of Transportation said Wednesday.

Repairs to the Glenwood Canyon bike path have also been completed, although the path is still closed from Shoshone to Hanging Lake rest area until later this week.

The emergency project was completed 23 days ahead of the original schedule.

“This was a tremendous team effort from the contractor and subcontractors as well at CDOT staff and our GeoHazards program to complete the damage repairs and rock scaling to get the interstate open ahead of schedule,” said Regional Transportation Director Dave Eller.

A rockslide on the evening of Feb. 15 — the second one of the day — just west of the Hanging Lake Tunnel closed I-70 in both directions for nearly a week. It was the longest full closure in the history of I-70 through the canyon.

Traffic was allowed through the canyon starting the evening of Feb. 21 in alternating directions through one open lane, then was opened to two-way, head-to-head traffic at the end of that week. Traffic has been moving in one lane on each side of the road in recent weeks as repair work is completed.

American Civil Constructors West Coast was the prime contractor on the $5 million emergency project. Martinez Western, Mountain Valley Milling and Your Way traffic control are all local subcontractors that worked on different aspects of the repairs including concrete work, rock hauling, guardrail repairs and milling of the damaged structures.

Note that the Glenwood Canyon bike path is open from Glenwood Springs to Shoshone on the west end and from Silom Springs to Hanging Lake rest area from the east end. With the repairs complete to the damaged area of the bike path, CDOT crews will work to get the Shoshone to Hanging Lake rest area section of path open by this weekend.

Users should be aware that as water levels begin to rise on the Colorado River, sections of the bike path can be closed. Please visit our website at http://www.cotrip.org for updates on the path.

In addition, CDOT said the No Name rest area (mile point 119) that will replace the fresh water holding tank and bring it up to standards. The $70,000 project is scheduled to be complete by the end of May.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, during a sanitary survey inspection, determined that the facility’s water tank needed to be moved above ground, eliminating the possibility of it being contaminated from groundwater, sediment or other potential pollutants.

The No Name restroom facilities and parking will be closed during construction except for a small section of the area that will be set aside for passenger vehicle parking for bike path access. Commercial vehicles will not be able to access the rest area. The Grizzly Creek rest area (mile point 121) remains open and accommodates traffic in both the westbound and eastbound direction.