State transit agencies scanned nearly 50 screens this week showing vehicles crawling like bugs across highways — and are preparing for a holiday surge over the next three weeks that will almost certainly lure drivers uncomfortable with the wintry conditions can’t cope in the mountains.

The Colorado Department of Transportation is increasingly focused on traffic flow, and monitoring capacity at its Golden Operations Center has doubled in recent years, with connections to more cameras installed along highways across the state.

CDOT center staff can also contact operators of nearly 900 snowplows by phone. In addition to clearing snow, these $400,000 orange behemoths serve as mobile command posts during some of the fiercest storms.

CDOT officials met Wednesday at the Operations Center in Golden to discuss ramped-up winter readiness plans aimed at reducing outages, accidents and delays.

What awaits drivers is unique – an Interstate 70 that leads to a change in climate and elevation that is more abrupt than any other Interstate Highway. I-70 runs from Denver International Airport at an elevation of 5,430 feet to the Eisenhower Tunnel at an elevation of 11,200 feet.

This shift confuses enough drivers to disrupt traffic flow. John Lorme, CDOT’s director of maintenance and operations, said the main problem is that visitors leaving DIA – and newcomers from milder regions – assume that entering a highway guarantees clear travel, as might happen in North Carolina and Florida is the case.

In December 2023, CDOT counted 1,068,736 vehicles rolling through the Eisenhower Tunnel. Traction law violations led to 60 traffic jams and 208 hours of delays this month.

CDOT analysts have calculated that an hour of delay along I-70 causes $1.6 million in economic losses. They predict a daily traffic volume of 57,000 vehicles on I-70, many of them large trucks.

The agency’s traffic flow studies show that for every minute a vehicle blocks traffic, it takes four minutes to restore normal traffic flow.

“It is critically important to keep the highways open and traffic-ready,” particularly on I-70 west of Denver, said Bob Fifer, deputy superintendent of operations. “If this corridor is closed, it will have a domino effect on the state.”

Dangers around western Colorado include potentially catastrophic snow slides crashing across roads. “There are over 500 avalanche paths across the country that border our highways,” said Brian Gorsage, CDOT avalanche program manager.

When problems arise, CDOT supervisors in recent years have increasingly favored “safety closures” to allow for quick cleanups, said CDOT Executive Director Shoshana Lew.

“We believe this is intentionally protecting people,” Lew said. “In the long term, these security closures shorten the delay time.”

The Colorado State Patrol is also mobilizing.

Based on extensive police response and years of observing driver behavior, Lt. Col. Brandon Means said three main causes of crashes stand out: speeding too fast for the conditions, following too closely and distracted driving.

Make sure tires have enough tread, keep gas tanks at least half full and carry spare windshield wiper fluid, Means said.

When CDOT activates the traction law along a highway, drivers who are not in four-wheel drive or all-wheel drive vehicles must have tires marked “winter,” “all-weather,” or “mud/snow” or carry traction devices such as chains. The minimum tread depth for all tires is three-sixteenths of an inch. The traction law is always in effect from September to May on I-70 in the mountains.