Road construction involves the use of various materials to create a smooth surface for vehicles. Soil is the primary material used for foundation, subgrade, and pavement, particularly for low-cost village roads with light traffic. Aggregates are used in the construction of granular bases, sub-bases, bituminous mixes, and cement concrete. Asphalt and bitumen are common road materials, mixed with appropriate aggregates for superior durability and load-carrying capacity.
New road construction requires detailed planning and design, including project concept determination, funding identification, and preliminary engineering. Engineers transfer design plans from drawings to the ground for precise implementation. Commonly used road materials range from natural soils, aggregates, binders like lime, asphalt, concrete, and assorted products used as admixtures.
Assessing road usage is crucial in the planning procedure, as it helps decide the building of a road that supports heavy traffic. The top 10 materials used for road construction include bitumen and asphalt, bitumen emulsion recycled materials, concrete, sand, gravel, crushed stone, and more.
The specific material chosen for the base course depends on factors like traffic load, subgrade conditions, and local availability of materials. Asphalt and concrete are the most common materials used for paving roads, with factors such as cost and traffic amount determining which material is used. A wide variety of materials are used in road construction, including soils, aggregates, binders, and composite pavement.
📹 How Modern Roads Are Built? Highway Construction Process
Have you ever wondered how roads are built? From highways to small streets, the process of road construction has evolved over …
What equipment is needed to build a road?
Construction equipment includes semi trucks, cranes, loaders, asphalt mixers, road rollers, graders, excavators, and forklifts. Roads require specialized vehicles, tools, and expert measuring devices for smooth, safe, and long-lasting driving surfaces. Common pieces of equipment used in road construction include dump trucks, excavators, rollers, paving, and forklifts. These tools are used to create driveways and create surfaces made of soil stabilized, gravel, earth, cement concrete, and bituminous or black top.
What is required to build a road?
Before pouring concrete, a foundation is necessary for road durability. Excavating and grading involve preparing the land by moving soil to flatten, build up, and slope the road location. We help choose the right earthmoving equipment, excavation equipment, paving equipment, and graders for the job. The process includes excavating, grading, and paving, as well as the 4 phases of road construction, including ground breaking. The 324G and Wirtgen Compact Milling Machine are used in road construction.
What material are most roads made of?
Asphalt concrete, a simple product made by adding asphalt cement to sand and rock, is a crucial component in America’s roadways and streets. However, its appearance can be misleading, especially in heavily trafficked, heavily loaded highway applications. Special care is needed to ensure adequate pavement performance, including the use of polymers to provide stability and avoid displacement under traffic. The chosen “binder” must remain soft during cold winter periods to minimize thermal cracking.
Special criteria are applied to the sand or fine aggregate component and the rock or coarse aggregate, with high-quality, durable aggregates crushed to an angular shape and properly sized to support heavy truck loading. Pavements can be engineered to meet various needs, such as greater durability, enhanced skid resistance, and a smoother ride for the traveling public. Asphalt meets many of today’s needs in maintaining the extensive highway network in the United States.
What is used to make a road?
Asphalt concrete, a simple product made by adding asphalt cement to sand and rock, is a crucial component in America’s roadways and streets. However, its appearance can be misleading, especially in heavily trafficked, heavily loaded highway applications. Special care is needed to ensure adequate pavement performance, including the use of polymers to provide stability and avoid displacement under traffic. The chosen “binder” must remain soft during cold winter periods to minimize thermal cracking.
Special criteria are applied to the sand or fine aggregate component and the rock or coarse aggregate, with high-quality, durable aggregates crushed to an angular shape and properly sized to support heavy truck loading. Pavements can be engineered to meet various needs, such as greater durability, enhanced skid resistance, and a smoother ride for the traveling public. Asphalt meets many of today’s needs in maintaining the extensive highway network in the United States.
What material is needed to build a road?
Paving roads involves laying the foundation and inspecting it. Asphalt and concrete are the most common materials used, with factors like cost and traffic determining which is used. Asphalt uses bitumen to glue sand and crushed rock together, heated to 300°F, and then spread and compacted onto the foundation. Concrete, on the other hand, uses cement and is poured into forms, vibrated, and trimmed to the correct height. Joints are made between concrete slabs to prevent cracks and allow them to expand and contract with temperature changes without breaking.
How do you build a road?
The road building process involves several stages, including clearing and excavation, grading and sloping, sub-bases for asphalt roads, binder and surface course, new asphalt installation, joints and transitions, asphalt, and concrete. The oldest known roads date back to ancient Mesopotamia, where they were constructed of mud bricks using bitumen. In America, the first national road between states was built in 1811, and the first asphalt road was built in 1870 in Newark, NJ.
Today, the US has over 4 million miles of paved roads, with approximately 31, 000 new road miles added each year. Asphalt road construction is the most common road building process used today, and the process is essential for the construction of modern roads.
What are road construction base materials?
Road base is a crucial component of road infrastructure, providing support and stability for the road to withstand heavy traffic and diverse weather conditions. Common road base types include gravel, crushed stone, and recycled materials. Gravel is a fine, smooth texture, while crushed stone has a jagged appearance. Recycled materials, made from recycled subgrade materials like concrete, asphalt, and dirt, are made from recycled subgrade base materials like concrete, asphalt, and dirt.
This article explores the different road base materials, their selection factors, and the construction process. It provides valuable insights into the role of road bases in ensuring safe and durable roadways, making it an essential component of road infrastructure.
How do you make new roads?
This comprehensive guide outlines the eight essential steps in a road construction project, from initial planning to final touches, to ensure each stage meets the highest quality standards. The first step is preliminary planning, which involves determining the project’s concept, defining the road’s purpose, expected traffic load, and environmental conditions. Engineers and planners also identify funding sources, such as government grants or private investments, to ensure the project is financially viable.
This phase also includes preliminary engineering work, such as surveys, soil testing, and environmental impact assessments. A well-executed planning stage sets the stage for a smooth project by identifying potential challenges early on, such as land acquisition issues or environmental concerns, allowing for proactive solutions. Road construction is a critical component of infrastructure development, impacting nearly every industry by ensuring smooth and safe transportation.
What materials are used in road construction?
The top 10 materials used for road construction include bitumen, asphalt, recycled materials, concrete, sand, gravel, crushed stone, geosynthetics, fly ash, steel, and iron. Road construction is crucial for infrastructure development and connecting cities, towns, and villages. A well-constructed road enhances operational efficiency, reduces travel time, and ensures safer journeys. Dutum Construction Company, with years of experience in road construction, uses high-quality materials and cutting-edge techniques to build durable roads. Their team of experts has successfully completed numerous projects, providing safe and efficient transportation solutions for communities across the country.
What are natural materials for roads?
Natural rock and soils, such as crushed limestone, sandstone, granite, slate, and volcanic cinder, are widely used in road construction. Phosphate waste rocks should not be avoided. Reused by-product aggregates, such as air-cooled blast furnace slag (BFS), can also be used in road construction. BFS, a by-product of iron manufacturing, forms a stone-like material when allowed to cool, which can be crushed and used as aggregate.
How is a road constructed?
Road construction necessitates a series of interrelated processes, including planning, site preparation, earthwork, the construction of sub-bases and base courses, the laying of pavements, and the installation of finishing touches such as signage and markings. The coordination of these activities between engineers, contractors, and stakeholders is essential for ensuring quality and safety standards are met.
📹 How to Build a Road
Writing by Sam Denby and Tristan Purdy Editing by Alexander Williard Animation led by Josh Sherrington Sound by Graham …
im gonna sugestthe best road type is by installing more tunneling ….simple cross overs bridgeing and or roofing to a road why ?avoide more weather conditions add cooling to evironment less space for off road damages contained wreckages more able to be minimized more access to filtering polutions not even requiring depth but untilizan darkness for cooling especialy best for desert areas sheild from road heat keeps above ground open for other uses farming energy collocters and more adds ability to see from headlights better than random forestry less snow moosh =cleaner roads less road damage from weathering,, cheaper in the long run,, less to repair,, less to snow plouw,,, change to minimize wrecks,,save lives emergency shelter locations… battel global warming so tunneled road designs are sugested for majority of roads as always the better benifit even for property owners not wanting to sell to loose land just returned surface area after tunnel installed… yet best of all benifits includeing alternative road sign space in all the walls includeing forescent light increaser colors for better night vision driveing better polution controls and again emergencey shelter purposes even if only begun in segments until majority is tunneled it has greater benifits than standard surface roads of constant repair needs..so less tax spent on constant road damages.so just saying….plenty jobs to be done for good reason ..
More efficent yeah right. The City of Industry CA Fullerton road train Bridge project took past 8 years and projected to be completed at 2024 end of January. So they could pro long this work. All done by you know who Cal Tran major public State County City project of Cali. I remember my daughter was crawling baby now she’s become tween. And still construction doesn’t even look like it’s going to finish of projected time frame. It’s more of tax dollars for these clowns to eat more doughnut than finish work. I will drop F 💣 on them. I don’t know about other states or city?
I was a hazmat driver who had to go over a lot of those passes every night, no matter what the weather was. Some of the scariest shit in the world. The only time we were allowed through Eisenhower tunnel was when Loveland pass was just impassable and we would have to wait, CDOT would close the tunnel both directions and escort all hazmat trucks through without any cars in the tunnel. Pretty crazy.
The crazy part is, I-70 is considered a safer route in winter than I-80 up in Wyoming. I-80 in Wyoming had less engineering challenges, but is legendary for horrifically bad weather in winter and the section between Laramie and Rock Springs is the windiest region in the entire US excluding some high mountain summits. Hurricane force winds are a very regular occurrence in southern Wyoming. Combine that with heavy snowfall, ice, and regular below zero temps in the winter and its a frozen hell on earth.
As a Highway engineer practicing in mountainous areas of the East Africa Rift Valley, I appreciate the accurate research you have done to show the amount of work that goes into designing & constructing a highway project in a challenging topography. It’s amazing to see how the design standards have evolved through the years. Even though we use also use AASHTO to supplement our design, we are forced to use 8% superelevation because we couldn’t be certain that the traffic would actually adhere to the design speed due to the cultural speeding in East Africa.
The story of I-70 through Utah is another engineering marvel in an of itself, not because of the terrain, but because of how absolutely remote it is. For example, there is a stretch of interstate almost 100 miles long with absolutely no services (food and gas). The route follows an old railroad corridor which the Union Pacific railroad surveyed, but never used because of how remote it was. When the first highway surveyors showed up in the area to plan the route of the new interstate, the local ranchers thought they were absolutely nuts to build a road through the area.
As a child, my family lived in Colorado but my grandparents lived in Utah. To visit them we either had to drive up through Wyoming on I-80 or take the I-70 route. Going through Colorado was our favorite as it was way more beautiful and fascinating even if it was a few hours longer, but after a couple of Christmas trips through terrible conditions we decided to only take I-70 in the summer. In fairness, I-80 in Wyoming has harsh winters too, with permanent checkpoints to shut it down for excessive blowing snow, but it was faster and flatter with less canyons and turns. My father would have to take enough time off from work to give us the flexibility to wait out the weather if a winter storm blocked our return trip home. It was worth it, these highways made all of my memories with my grandparents possible, and are a part of what I call home
I dug out the railroad tracks (UPRR) in Glennwood via high rail track hoe last summer from the mud slides that closed down sections of I-70 & trapped motorist for over a day in Glennwood tunnel. Great article. You should make another talking about the building of that section of railroad and the challenges faced while doing so. Very neat part of logistical history
This is so interesting, thanks! As a lawyer especialized in public procurement, our firm does a lot of legal consulting for big infraestructure construction companies, but all the minutia of the engineering of the roads our clients do flies over my head😅 so this actually explains a lot! I live in Chile were most highways have to pass through some sort of mountain, similarly to this one. I actually love working for these types of projects; by helping the contractor (and a State), in a few years, you get the satisfaction to drive or use a new infraestructure that serves the whole community. Pretty cool!
As someone who has driven this route (once), I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys traveling/driving/nature/site seeing. It’s kinda cool to have the experience of driving the highest rd in the country but really for me, the sites were amazing. There’s nothing in this article that could do any justice to being there and seeing it with your own eyes. I’m not a native of Colorado so not familiar with climate but it was the beginning of April when I made the trip and despite all the hazards the homie was speaking of, it was a breeze for me. The tunnel was a breeze and the roads were also.
Been on this a bunch of times and there’s plenty of spots that are extremely sketchy but it’s so beautiful and seems like the mountains go on forever. There’s so many it goes on for hours. My friend is a truck driver and he said they don’t even let him take 70 past Denver because of how crazy it gets.
0:20 I don’t know if anyone else noticed, but the slope counteracts centrifugal forces, not centripetal. Centripetal forces are actually what keeps matter close to the axis of rotation, counteracting centrifugal forces, which pull matter away (i.e. if you swing a bucket of water, the centrifugal forces keep the water in. This means the slope of the road actually creates centripetal forces itself.
I think you would love learning about US 550 or the million dollar highway between Montrose Colorado and Durango Colorado. Some incredible engineering and history. I think you would also enjoy doing a deep dive into avalanche science and how it impacts transportation and safety. You talked about it a little bit, but many folks just don’t want to realize how much work goes in to keeping mountain roadways open.
I’m actually a civil engineer in Colorado doing roadway design! My company is actually working on the reconstruction of the west side of vail pass! I worked on that project a little and I got very familiar with it. Colorado’s mountain roads are about as a crazy as it gets in the US. If you want to see a real piece of engineer absurdity look up the Million Dollar Highway, US 550 between Ouray & Silverton, a road not for the faint of heart!
Thanks for the great article ❤ I drive Denver to grand junction and back at least 5 times a year and see so many accidents, snow or sun… But you also see so many sides of Colorado and I am nearly in tears every time I have the opportunity to take this breathtaking drive. I’ve lived here for all my 26 years and I see Colorado different each time I drive I-70
My grandfather drove the 1940s highways through this entire region from Denver and Pueblo to Salt Lake. He remembers driving home in a blizzard, getting out, walking 20 feet or so to see where the road went, getting back in, driving that stretch, repeating the process for hours until he got to a town. That story he told freely. Other stories I had to press him to tell as much as he would and I still get chills. America’s highways are soaked in red, there’s just no way to avoid the fact. I’m still very proud to be a 5th generation native of Colorado and I hope I get to stay forever. Thank you @Wendoverproductions for such a deep dive into the Rockies roads. Come visit and enjoy them this fall and winter! Fly into Denver or Eagle and you’re sure to have a great time!
Colorado native here, and one who grew up in the sparse northern area where possible I-70 might have gone. Spoiler: there was no reason to have a freeway there. Anyhow, I’ve driven I-70 countless times and love this little piece on it. Regarding Eagle’s Nest, my dad told me a story that the state did take the road planners up to Eagle’s Nest in winter to show exactly how much it snowed there and they instantly reevaluated the plans. I imagine combined with concerns about the environment impact, the snowfall thwarted the plans. I’ve also gone over Vail Pass in heavy snowstorms. The grade is such that a car with front wheel drive and good tires generally is going to be fine (assuming you’re wise enough to go slowly and carefully). But I’ve also had to wind my way around jackknifed trucks and SUVs with balding tires. I no longer live in Colorado but I still hear the stories of ski traffic on the weekends making the journey back to Denver an hours long ordeal. Highway planners don’t have many options to expand it. I don’t envy their jobs!
Building a tunnel under the continental divide sounds interesting when just talking about it, but the weirdness is truly driven home when actually being there. I can’t count how many times I’ve entered Eisenhower tunnel in sunny and dry conditions, only to come out the other side in a full-blown blizzard.
When I was trucker, I would sigh everytime I got Colorado load as it is the least trucker friendly state in whole of America. I hated Colorado so much but after seeing this my thinking has genuinely changed. I guess I never knew how overwhelmed CDOT people were. However I still would like for them to buid some rest areas or at the very least just parking areas like in Nevada or Wyoming.
It’s amazing to see you doing so many Colorado based articles. I’ve lived here half my life, driven over I70 more times than I can count and just hearing you explain these problems and dilemmas is so cool. I’ve seen these problems first and second hand (the mud slides I experienced closer in person on highway 24 in Colorado Springs)
Thank Edgardo Contini, master engineer, for the Glenwood Canyon masterpiece of road design and construction. Contini was a visionary with the charisma and character to bring around anyone not understanding how design can truly transform the landscape and nature. He was an educator and consumate professional. His love and intuitive understanding of nature deeply inspired his students and colleagues. And, he had a wicked sense of humor. His fingerprints are everywhere, inspiring us 30 years after his passing.
I live in Colorado and I drive I-70 in both directions on a regular basis. I am incredibly impressed every time. I wish everyone could drive it at least once. It is incredible. In several sections, there wasn’t enough space to place the Eastbound and Westbound lanes side by side, so they put them one over top of the other. And the scenery is almost beyond belief. If you don’t live near mountains, it must be overwhelming. In fact, I feel sorry for everyone who has to drive it alone because you have to keep your eyes on the road and you’ll actually miss a lot of beautiful sights. I normally drive it alone, and many times I wish I could just pull over and take in the view of the mountains. But, you know how it goes. On the way out I have appointments and can’t afford the delays that would cost. On the way home, I miss my wife and want to get home to her. I have a fantasy that one day I will have the time and the money to drive where I want to go JUST to pull over, stop, and see the things I miss when I am behind the wheel.
GREAT mini-doc!! I used to live in Montrose, on the western slope so I’m VERY familiar w/ this highway. I still marvel at this beautiful travel route and consider it one of the best planned, most beautiful, and fascinating stretches of highway in the country. But I feel like you overlooked quite a lot when you didn’t explain the “floating” sections of the interstate. You should follow-up w/ a part two which examines the architecture of those sections bc I think that they’re a marvel of design. They’re present yet not intrusive to the eye and they were built to have just that effect. I think that everyone should make this trip at least once in their lifetime (preferably in summer!)
In the late 90’s and early 2000’s the state wanted to build an elevated passenger rail line from Denver international airport to Grand Junction using the I-70 corridor. As I recall state voters rejected the plan because it was going to be VERY expensive and only benefit people living along I-70. Still, I would have enjoyed taking the train to the Airport or Downtown Denver from Edwards Colorado instead of driving.
I drive i70 in a truck for work multiple times a week and it truly feels like fighting for your life some days. Most people don’t understand how terrifying, time consuming, and exhausting it is to keep mountain towns running. Next time you complain about your $10 beer and $20 burger think of the logistical nightmare it took to get those items to the highest towns in the US.
I fell in love with i70 through Colorado (and Utah) my first time I ever took a road trip to California. Once I got to the scenic overlook in Silverthorne, I realized I might not even make it to my destination. Not because of the treachery of the road, but because the scenery is absolutely unmatched in this country. Highly recommend driving at least once in your life.
I appreciate your mention of hazardous material transport. While I never have traversed Loveland Pass, I have used US 30, the I 70 alternate to the tunnels through Pennsylvania. It is a very dangerous alternative to the tunnels, and I do feel like they are trading our safety for the convenience of the general public. These old routes are simply outside the charts of what would be a safe acceptable design today. I feel like there are ways we could safely use these tunnels, such as scheduled convoys, which could be accompanied by the appropriate fire apparatus. For a lower skilled driver, who has little experience with this type of driving, the treacherous routes like Loveland Pass and US 30 could be a death sentence if there is any mechanical failure at all!
Wendover Voice Dude, I have a tremendous amount of respect for you for promoting non-partisan views. Have to say, been perusal WP for many years. I was disgruntled when a few of your vids struck a nerve with me on a sensitive issue which has been politicized. All i ask with anyone is that we can treat each other with respect when we have different view or agree to disagree. You are highly intelligent and put out great content. Thank you for pursuing truth over ego or confirmation bias.
This was very well done, I will say that the Eisenhower tunnel does allow hazmat vehicles to go through the tunnel only when Loveland pass is closed. At the top of every hour they will stop all non-hazmat vehicles before the entrance of the tunnel and they will send all of the hazmat vehicles through at this time. But the biggest issue the drivers face and on i70 is the amount of people who think that the left lane is a travel lane.
Grew up in Denver. I remember when they build the Glendwood Canyon stretch of I-70. Took years. It is one of the most impressive and beautiful stretches of interstate. And Vail Pass is remarkable. Another fairly crazy bit is the drop from Evergreen down into Denver. It’s steep with some fairly hefty turns. The whole drive over the Rockies is beautiful and impressive.
2021, almost died driving on Lovelands Pass after leaving Keystone during a snowstorm at night. Could barely see the road and turned for a few seconds it looked like the bend was to the left when in fact it was a sharp bend to the right around the hill. Thankfully I saw a snowbank near the edge of the cliff and aimed for it to avoid losing grip with erratic steering. My rental car had to be extricated by 2 tow trucks working together to avoid damage to the vehicle. In retrospect I should’ve known renting a fwd chevy Malibu in Colorado wasnt a good idea. At the very top of Lovelands Pass that car was inches away from a 400ft cliff edge sitting at about a 30% lateral angle. Looking out the driver side window I could see straight down the cliff’s edge, scattered with sharply edged boulders pertruting the hill side all the way down the valley. When I opened the driver’s door (facing the valley ~400ft down) I suddenly realized how heavy car doors actually are when it swung opened pulling my hand down with it! I had to climb back up about 6 ft on my hands and feet up the hill, with a heavy flurry of snow cutting my face with each gust, it was an experience I won’t soon forget! I just want to say thank you again for all those men and women working in such brutal conditions to keep us safe, the first responders and the two tow truck drivers that were somehow able to extricate that crappy sedan without a scratch on it! ❤
Between the Eisenhower tunnel and Glenwood Canyon I figured I-70 through CO had to be the most expensive chunk of highway in America. Just the trip through Glenwood with its endless hopping from one side of the Colorado river to the other, and the tunnels through various cliff outcroppings will convince you very quickly that this was an awfully expensive construction task. Then comes rockslides, mudslides, avalanches, and wildfires on a regular basis, and it’s a never-ending maintenance task to try to keep the canyon highway open.
I love the Wendover / Half as Interesting Synergy where Wendover shows us “look at the amazing feats and complexity behind our modern world! See what we can achieve as humans!” and then Half as Interesting articles going “and now that you’re marveling, look at all the things we royaly f***ed up in this modern world, mostly because laziness and stupidity!” 😄 You’re doing great work Sam & Team 😄
im from developing country, after perusal this article, there’s literally another article of roads from my area, the contractors just put 50×50 concrete on the ground with gaps between them and call it a day. And very popular website here is compilation of overloaded trucks slipping their tires trying to climb non-standardized mountain pass roads. No matter what people on internet say about US, they have better goverment than mine
The hazmat situation right now is compounded because the southern hazmat route from the front range to the western slope (US-50) is closed frequently for a widening project through the little blue canyon between sapinero and cimmaron. This road has a diversion on highway 92 through the north rim of the black canyon, but that road is highly treacherous and very narrow for trucks.
THe drive on this road is absolutely breathtaking. The only thing that distracts from the ethereal beauty is pondering about how in the heck the road could have been built in the first place. I know it was explained in the article, but the way in which the road hugs the natural curves of the mountains and seamlessly flows above the rivers and through the tunnels makes for a one-of-a-kind drive for both the driver and passengers.
This feels like a continuation of the Interstates article you did a little while ago. I have gone over this chunk of I-70 between Denver and Grand Junction in every season. Climbing the mountains in late evening with the sun low behind the distant summits is incredible. Take the trip if you have never seen it. Absolutely breathtaking.
US6 in the mountains is absolutely a beautiful, scary road to drive on in good weather with speeders and drunk drivers from the casinos. However during a snow storm it gets 10x worse. I recall nearly plummeting over the edge one winter during a nearly white out storm, one wheel hanging over the edge of a 30+ ft drop, and I wasn’t even speeding, hit a patch of black ice right before a turn. There is a reason there are so many rusting car wrecks in that valley. Safety first if you choose to drive it, better to arrive late then dead.
Drove the whole route from the Utah border to Denver earlier this year. Beautiful stretch of highway. A true engineering marvel. Besides the areas mentioned, the highway around Georgetown and Idaho Springs is really cool because the valley gets so narrow the two directions are almost on top of each other.
You never cease to amaze me with the amount of information you provide in each article. It blows my mind. This is tantamount to a semester of college in road building 101. I marvel as I drive across this country at how many miles of great freeways we have and how easy they are to navigate. I’ve driven from the Pacific to the Atlantic and Canada to Mexico and we are so blessed to have great freeways to make the travel so enjoyable. Thanks again for the article.
As someone who lives in the mountains of Colorado, Eisenhower Tunnel is infamous if you’re going to or from Denver. If even one person spins out, it can lock down the road one way or another for hours. Vail pass is even more infamous. If you’re going to have sketchy weather, if you’re going to have whiteout conditions, it’s gonna be vail pass. Whenever we go from glenwood to Denver, we don’t say we’re on the way until we’ve made it past both. IF you can get through Vail Pass, IF the traffic through Eisenhower isn’t terrible, then you’re on your way. My personal record for waiting on Eisenhower Tunnel is (not joking) 5 hours.
15:03 happened during a blizzard once, people started heading up the pass and hazard lights were lighting up like christmas morning with people not knowing how to drive on snowy roads. its situations like these that make me just wanna drive back down and sleep in my car for a couple of hours until either the tunnel reopens or the pass clears of snow.
I remember when I80 was finished in Wyoming. Some brain trust put it through the most windy part of the entire state. Also, I80 is through open plains which means snow is ok, but after the storm, the wind then moves all the snow across I80. Some clever wit, after driving across Wyoming on I80 nicknamed it the “Snow Chi Min Trail” (It was finished at the same time America was in Viet Nam).
I’ve actually driven that route all the way to Arizona, starting in the Colorado area you mentioned. It was really neat to see those things again. I will say though, there are a lot of sections that don’t have that 6% grade at the bends and it’s pretty scary when you’re traversing through in your car and you feel like you are going to tip over!
Context: I am from California the I-70 (in Colorado) is the most dangerous road i have ever droven on. when at night, there is no light and the lane lines are sometimes unpainted and usually unreflective. the speed limit is 80mph. at night, it is really hard to drive especially because the tunnels are bright with all lights on but the interstate is dark. Can’t adjust to the light change
It’s amazing to consider just how specialised and esoteric the world has become through industrialisation and the rise of technology. This is just one highway in just one state of just one country, and yet there are multiple people whose entire working lives revolve around some small, highly specific aspect of that one highway. And there are a million other functions of government and private industry that are just as esoteric, often more so, each with their own army of specialised workers carefully attending to their duties and keeping the wheels of civilisation spinning.
Love my Colorado. I remember when Wolf Creek Pass was a dirt road 🎉fun times…. it’s still scary even paved. Love it!!! I70 is amazing engineering, no doubt…. i sent GM an email asking where all the charging stations would be built on I70 for all those electric cars 😅 I never got an answer. Imagine that…. 😂
11:35, Wow, this is an extremely important sentence in this article. It sums up a lot of their problems and is also very interesting and informative. The whole article too, thanks Wendover Productions. 14:20, this too. 18:20, create a viable/reasonably affordable solution for this, become a billionaire. 10/29/2023, 6:25am
Highly informative! I lived in the Denver area before the Eisenhower tunnel was completed. Loveland pass was indeed challenging during the winter. Along with the challenge, a lot of the mystique and beauty went away, too. It seems almost too routine, except the tunnel and its setting retain elements of marvel and awe. Glen wood canyon is another matter. I miss the two-lane days. The canyon seems irretrievably gone. Certainly the though-time is much shortened. But the romance and beauty are gone. And problems continue. Thanks for the very well done presentation!
Immediately west of Vail pass one of my first jobs was installation of cut and fill culverts. Culverts between 6 and 11 feet in diameter, crossing both east and west road beds. The cuts excavated by surveyor scope and large excavators,, I was the guy to enter the ditch and with a shovel and by eye, flatten the center of the ditch to receive the culverts. I was one of the men assembling the sections and on the fill teams compacting the spoils to 95% and greater to bury the pipe. 1971-1972.
Step 1 – Spend 500m on research Step 2 – Have the gov discuss if we should even do it and spend another 250m on those discussions Step 3 – Find a contractor that will charge the city 25bn and then they’ll subcontract the job to someone else for 2bn Step 4 – Wait 15 years and project will be only 5% complete and x 100 overbudget. Classic.
So many ideas. Very well researched. But not enough effort in linking it all together to package it into an easy-to-understand narrative. For a non-engineer, this was a bit difficult to contextualize. I rate this article a 7.8/10 It was very noticeable that wendover tried to pack in as much information into a 20 minute article. Admirable, but sometimes defeats the purpose of actually relaying useful and understandable information. B roll footage is not always congruent with the ideas being explored by the narration. Wendover, you have the opportunity to introduce amazing facts about various fields, and you have wonderful platforms at your disposal. Pease maximize the use of your media (audio and article). The entire article felt like i was listening to 25 different trains of thought haphazardly strung together to create a 20 minute article. You can do way better.
Driving this route, I17 north to Flagstaff, and along the Columbia river from Vancouver, Washington are my favorite routes that I’ve driven. Multnomah falls, the red rocks of sedona and the great views between Moab and East Denver….. eastern Colorado is as boring as the Texas panhandle but at least Texas has Cadillac ranch off I40.
i know its an ad so it by default doesnt make sense but why would it matter to me for who the founder previously worked for? usually its what kind of person they are and how good of a job they are doing. i dont see a need to know what there previous jobs have been to know if ground is worth a try or not.
As a 6th generation native of Colorado, I remember road trips across the state on Hiway 6 and Hiway 40 . That’s all there was when I was young. One of my Great Grandfathers founded Grang Junction and Delta,so we crossed the state many times,to visit family when I was young . Loved fishing on Grand Mesa . Anyway,I grew up, became a heavy equipment operator and worked on building I 70 through Stratton, Rifle & Ten Mile Canyon. 44 below zero in Ten Mile, Thanksgiving weekend, 1978 . But all the peat bogs were frozen, so we could work . Good times . Thanks for draglining up good memories
Great article!! It’s easy to take for granted the impressiveness and complexity of a road so convenient. I travel frequently and 2020, 2021, and 2022 made me truly appreciate the convenience of I-70. Many days I worried I wouldn’t beat the thunderstorms forecasted for Glenwood Canyon and I’d inevitably be stuck in Dotsero or forced to traverse one of the hours long detours to get home. I-70 is a true marvel of engineering and holds untold convenience and value to not just those who live around it but to the country as well!
This article is very informative and helpful. I appreciate the explanation and demonstration of how to build a road, from planning and design, to excavation and grading, to paving and finishing. It’s amazing how much work and skill goes into creating a road that can withstand traffic and weather conditions. I admire the engineers, contractors, and workers who are involved in this process. I also learned a lot about the different types of roads, such as asphalt, concrete, gravel, and dirt roads, and their advantages and disadvantages. Thank you for making this article and sharing it with us. 👍🏻😊
Both my uncle and my late wife’s grandfather were on the Johnson tunnel bores. They both had done some time in hard rock coal mining around Butte MT. At first when it was only one tunnel even though there was 2 lanes they only let one direction of traffic go through at once. It was something like 15 minutes of traffic 15 minutes of clearing the tunnel out then the other direction got their turn.
*Spoiler: It doesn’t (work) very well. I won’t drive I-70 between Genasee Pk and Leadville unless it’s an emergency or maybe 2AM. Colorado’s #1 traffic jam. I remember when we always used to hold our breaths through Eisenhower Tunnel, back when you could actually go the speed limit. Edit to add: to the “scary drive” comments, come see us in SW Colo, by way of Red Mountain pass sometime, I-70 is like the Disneyland of Mountain passes, long lines being the biggest fear.
Road designers don’t tilt/slope a road to counteract centripetal force!!! Centripetal means “center seeking”. It is the force necessary to overcome the inertia to continue in a straight line and instead make an object follow a curve. It points to the center of curvature. Friction supplies the force normally. But a slope converts gravity into a centripetal force also. Hence, when friction is low due to ice, gravity can help make the turn — just not at arbitrarily high speeds.
Having recently driven I-70 entire stretch (Baltimore to Sulpherdale ) in a moving van .. I can tell you this road would be forbidden from being built today. The sad part is just like rest of the country .. new routes and new interstate are sorely needed.. completing I-70 to I-5 is a must. Along with either additional tunnels to accommodate dedicated trucks or a new pass over the top ..
It’s funny to me, since such a huge barrier would be a natural country border if the US weren’t, well, united. I’m curious about how US history would’ve progressed if the colonisation happened 400 years earlier, or if the native populations had more resources to resist the runaway colonisation. I can see the west coast becoming a country, with the lands east of the continental divide either falling under control of a single government, or what I find more likely, a single country up to the Mississippi, then multiple smaller countries alongside other natural borders along the east coast.
Ha, I remember when they closed Glenwood Canyon in 2021. We went there in July 2021 and we had to go through Moffat county on the way there, which took us about 6 hours (on a good day, the road from Denver to G-wood takes about 2 1/2 hours to drive). We had to take Independence Pass back to Denver. Took us about 4 hours. That was a hell of a trip… 😅
A delightful article, as someone working in this field there was only one single minor half-truth throughout the whole thing. At 6:15, the $0.94 cent in additional cost sounds a bit less severe due to the value likely being from the time of planning. A modern value would likely be closer to $6.25 (10 mile by the vehicle depreciation rate of ~$0.625/mi). And to put that into further perspective, the AADT of this road is ~33,000 vehicles per day which translates to around $75,000,000/yr in additional costs. Either way, very nice article.
In the 5 years I’ve lived in Colorado I’ve pretty much been in all these situations including the tunnel closures, mudslides, avalanches, boulders in the road. I don’t even travel along the I-70 more than 5 times a year. There was even one time in 2021 when I was travelling with another group in the car behind us and fears of further mudslides caused us to be last car through and they stopped our friends behind us. It took them 5 hours before they were able to meet up with us. It was wild being the only car on the road through 30minutes of driving on the I-70 and lots of excevators cleaning up mudslides while we were driving by. Another time coming back from ski resort in the snow, a 2 hour drive took us 10 hours… It’s a wild yet beautiful stretch of road. The very first two shots of your articles were where the mudslides are usually the worst!
Excellent summation of this Amazing Highway. Your technical explanations do great service to the Folks who designed and built this freeway. I built highways for 15 years for Colorado contractors and every winter I traveled from Georgetown, east of the Eisenhower tunnels to Avon, west of Vail daily to work at Beaver Creek ski resort. The most complicated highway stretch in North America.
You mentioned that certain roadway improvements are being considered, due to the recent Congressionally approved spending bill. Are there further details on that? It still seems like straightening the path of I-70 from Silverthorne more directly westwards to Vail Pass would be a good idea. Including adequate wildlife over/under passes, of course.