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I-70 Floyd Hill to Chief Hosa Resurfacing

Transportation

Owner acceptance testing and inspection through 6.4 miles of night SMA paving on Colorado's mountain corridor.

  • $12.8MMountain Corridor Investment
  • 6.4 MIOf I-70 Milled & Repaved
  • SMAStone Matrix Asphalt, Tested On Site

Repaving the gateway to the Rockies – without closing it.

Between Floyd Hill and Chief Hosa, I-70 climbs through the Front Range foothills carrying ski traffic, freight, and daily commuters in and out of the mountains — and its pavement had reached the end of its life. CDOT’s $12.8 million resurfacing project rehabilitated 6.4 miles of the interstate (MP 246.5–252.9) through Jefferson and Clear Creek Counties, milling off deteriorated pavement and repaving both directions in stone matrix asphalt (SMA) — the durable, rut-resistant surfacing CDOT reserves for its hardest-working corridors. With no practical detour around this stretch of the mountains, contractor APC Construction completed all paving in a single season, almost entirely under nighttime lane closures, then returned the following season for guardrail replacement, culvert cleaning, signage, and striping.

Working directly for CDOT, Vivid Engineering Group provided construction inspection, QA/QC administration, and field and laboratory owner acceptance materials testing across the project. SMA is one of the most demanding mixes to test — gap-graded, fiber-stabilized, and unforgiving on volumetrics — so Vivid ran the entire laboratory acceptance program from its on-site field lab, turning results while the mat was still going down. Vivid inspectors and certified technicians worked the night closures alongside the paving crews, verifying mix temperatures, compaction, and placement in real time; high-altitude paving windows, mountain weather, and live interstate traffic made every shift count, and Vivid’s team kept acceptance testing and documentation moving on the contractor’s schedule so the corridor reopened to full capacity every morning.

Project Details

  • Client

    Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT)

  • Contractor

    APC Construction Co. – a CRH Company

  • Location

    I-70 Mountain Corridor, Floyd Hill to Chief Hosa (MP 246.5-252.9) – Jefferson & Clear Creek Counties, CO

  • Project Value

    $12.8 million

  • Timeline

    Construction April 2022 – May 2023

  • Sector

    Transportation

  • Services

    Construction Inspection & Testing

Project Location

I-70, Chief Hosa to Floyd Hill (MP 246.5 to 252.9), Jefferson and Clear Creek counties, CO

Nearest City: Genesee area

County: Jefferson and Clear Creek

State: Colorado

Highway route

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