CDOT provides update on project to install 66 new traffic cameras on rural roads, including popular mountain passes

The Colorado Department of Transportation says a project to install 66 new cameras on rural roads across the state remains on schedule, but no new cameras will be active by this winter.

The project, which will replace some of the cameras the transportation department removed from rural roads last summer, remains on track for the new cameras to come online by fall 2027, according to CDOT.

“The cameras being replaced as part of this project sit in remote spots across the state and give CDOT maintenance crews and travelers a read on road and weather conditions, especially on mountain passes and long stretches of the Eastern Plains,” said CDOT spokesperson Stacia Sellers in an email.

In the mountains, the current plans call for five new cameras on U.S. Highway 6 at Loveland Pass, one at U.S. Highway 9 and Heeney Road north of Silverthorne, one on Highway 9 in Blue River, five on U.S. Highway 40 at Berthoud Pass and three along Highway 40 at Rabbit Ears Pass, among others.

Since kicking off this past spring, the camera replacement project has focused on groundwork, which includes pouring caissons, which are foundations, and laying conduit at all 66 sites across the state so that poles, cabinets, power and cameras can be installed, Sellers said. Unlike many construction projects that are concentrated in one area, she said this project requires crews to cover long distances across the state “to keep multiple sites moving simultaneously.”

“Construction has been progressing ahead of the original estimated pace at many sites,” she said. “For example, work originally scoped at pouring one caisson per week has, in some cases, produced five in that timeframe.”

The project aims to reduce some of the 136 cameras, only about 90 of which were operational, that CDOT removed from roadways across the state last summer. The cameras were removed after the transportation department’s contract with LiveView, the company that operated the old cameras, was allowed to expire in July “due to cost and contract limitations,” according to CDOT.

The cameras that were removed included 17 on Interstate 70 from Vail to Frisco, five on U.S. Highway 40 near Berthoud Pass, four on U.S. Highway 6 near Loveland Pass, two on Colorado Highway 82 near Aspen and three on U.S. Highway 40 near Rabbit Ears Pass.

Some mountain residents used the cameras to check driving conditions, especially in the winter when snow and ski traffic can impact local commutes, and were surprised when the old cameras were taken down.

“CDOT knows how much the public loves and has come to depend on many of the cameras, and our crews are working hard to finish this project on schedule,” Sellers said.

The new camera network will be owned and operated by the state for “long-term reliability, cost savings and operational control, according to CDOT. It will add to an existing camera network that already includes nearly 1,000 road-side cameras, including hundreds on major roads like I-70.

Once the groundwork to install the new cameras is complete, she said the system still has to be integrated, tested and brought live before it is available to the traveling public and viewable on COTrip.org. The new system is expected to be more reliable than the cameras it is replacing, but due to the rural location of the cameras, most will be connected to run on a cell modem, rather than CDOT’s fiber network.

“It’s a much stronger set up than we had before, but a severe enough storm could still knock a system offline,” Sellers said. “The majority of our cameras and devices currently operational on COTrip are on our fiber optic network and use utility power, which is a very reliable system.”