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Works Better Corporation, a nonpartisan public benefit corporation, builds this site.

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Every number carries one of four labels (FACT, CALC, SAMPLE or PENDING) and a source you can open.
CDOTI-70 West Vail Pass Auxiliary Lanes
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CDOT · Transportation

I-70 West Vail Pass Auxiliary Lanes

Auxiliary lanes, new bridges, wildlife crossings & rockfall mitigation (10 mi, Eagle County). Timeline 2021–2026.

Money in FACT
Est. total cost
$325M

CALC Up 97.9% from $164.2M.

Formula: ($325M − $164.2M) ÷ $164.2M. First figure: CDOT, first-phase project (INFRA award).

Result so far
Underway. What this stage means

Underway. The main work on this project started. Money goes out as the work goes on.

The stages, in order

  1. Requested An agency asked. No money yet.
  2. Funded Money approved. Work still to start.
  3. Underway Work started. Money goes out. This project
  4. Complete Work complete.

Halted Work stopped before the end.

This stage is our reading of the sources at the foot of this page, last read 24 September 2026.

Timeline 2021–2026

Still open PENDING
Spend to date

Colorado does not publish what it has spent on this project.

FACT A Honesty Framework The label says how we know the figure. The grade rates the source record, not the project. The grade rates the source record, not the project.

Your take on this project

How well does this project use public money?
Your rating and comment help show which projects residents see as a good use of public money, and which as a poor one.

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Your rating is stored without your name, address or any identifier. We count it into a total, so the people who govern this place can see how residents read their spending. No rating and no total is published on this site. We may publish summaries of what residents tell us about a place. Those are our own writing, never your rating and never a count, average or distribution of anybody's. Ratings and comments are grouped into themes that show elected leaders how residents rate each project.

Latest public update

CDOT's construction page for the project gives its construction cost as $325M, with a timeline of August 2021 to December 2026 and substantial completion scheduled by December 2026. CDOT's main project page still describes the $164.2M project it started with a $60.7M federal INFRA grant as the first phase; CDOT does not say how the scope moved between the two figures. Until 24 September 2026 this row showed ≈ $200M, taken from press coverage while the two figures were unreconciled.

Open questions for the state (1)
ANALYSIS
  • What is the audited final cost once the corridor is complete?

Total cost and spending
Total project cost$325M

Total cost & funding are drawn from the official record(s) listed below.

Spend-to-date: not published. Colorado does not publish what it has spent on this project, so this field is left blank rather than estimated. TOPS, the state’s spending ledger, does not carry CDOT’s construction payments. CDOT posts a payment estimate each month for every construction contract. Each one covers a single contract, not a project, and we have not matched this project’s contracts to them.

Budget to actual

Public records tie $207,103,126 of payments to this project. That is 63.7% of the $325,000,000 basis: construction cost, as CDOT's construction page states it (August 2021 to December 2026).

  • Exact $93,598,472 28.8% of the basis
  • Documented $113,504,654 34.9% of the basis

Each link is graded by how sure the record is. The other $117,896,874 is unlinked. Some of it may be unspent, and some may be paid where no public record names this project.

See every link and its evidence

Milestones (3)
  • Construction began — 2021
  • Final construction season — 2026
  • Completion — end 2026

Estimate, first to current
FACT
first public estimate → current+$160.8M · +98%
CDOT, first-phase project (INFRA award) → CDOT, construction cost (2026)$164.2M → $325M
Watchlist average drift+49% per project · +42% dollar-weighted
Both endpoints are drawn from the source records below; the change, percentage, and average are our arithmetic (CALC). The average covers the 3 of 53 tracked projects with two published estimates — for the rest, the state has published a single figure, so their drift is unknowable, not zero. Estimates move in both directions — we show the honest record either way.

Who is being paid (2)
FACT
Funding sourceState (SB 267 / Transportation Commission) with federal grants.
Political giving
Kiewit Infrastructure Co.CM/GC construction contractor—PENDING Not published for this contract.ACDOT construction-phase pageSearch TRACER
RS&H, Inc.Prime design consultant—PENDING Not published for this contract.Btrade press / firm pageSearch TRACER
Where this comes from: award announcements and project records from CDOT, FHWA, agencies and the legislature’s nonpartisan staff — each Record link opens the source. Paid-to-date shows only published figures (green = verified); everything else stays PENDING, because the state does not publish payments project by project. Political giving links open TRACER, the Secretary of State’s official campaign-finance database, where contribution records are searchable by name — contributions are legal and public, and a search link implies no wrongdoing by anyone.

Sources and receipts (2)

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I-70 West Vail Pass Auxiliary Lanes

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