Colorado Targets I-70 Closures With Strict Left-Lane Semi Truck Ban

If you've driven I-70 through Glenwood Canyon lately, you've probably seen it.

Big orange overhead sign, blinking like it means business: "NEW STATE LAW. CMV USE RIGHT LANES ONLY."

It does mean business. Colorado just changed the rules for semis on some of the most dangerous stretches of highway in the state.

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What the new Colorado CMV law does

CMV means Commercial Motor Vehicle, basically semis and anything over 16,000 pounds.

Those trucks now have to stay in the right lane at specific chokepoints on the I-70 Mountain Corridor: Floyd Hill, Georgetown Hill, the Eisenhower-Johnson Tunnel, Vail Pass, Dowd Junction, and the one that matters most out here, Glenwood Canyon.

They can still pull left to pass. But once the pass is done, they're required back in the right lane immediately. No more lingering left doing 62 while a line of cars stacks up.

Why Glenwood Canyon specifically

Anybody who's driven the canyon during a summer storm or a January whiteout knows why.

Narrow lanes, no real shoulder, rock on one side, river on the other, plus a steady stream of out-of-state truckers who've never seen a mountain pass before this trip.

State Rep. Rick Taggart, whose district covers this area, pushed for the law because the canyon had become a predictable source of crashes and closures.

Read More: From North Ave to Canyon View Park: Where Grand Junction’s License Plate Readers Are Locate

It's part of a bigger overhaul

This isn't standalone.

It's tied to CDOT's expanded "Must Carry" chain law, which now requires CMVs to carry chains from September 1 through May 31 across more than 1,400 miles of Colorado highway, with 130 chain-up stations statewide, 22 on the I-70 corridor alone.

So next time you see a truck hugging the right lane through the canyon, that's not politeness.

That's the law now, and it took Denver long enough.