The strike that began Sunday night was set to last through the day Monday, with some of the striking workers rallying outside DIA’s Main Terminal at 10:30 a.m.

Around three dozen of the striking workers showed up to Monday’s rally, walking around the plaza entrance by the Westin Hotel wearing SEIU sweatshirts and holding signs that read “Swissport Cargo Workers On Strike Over Unsafe Working Conditions.”

“It’s a big ask to get people to risk their job in this way, even though it’s legally protected,” said Andrew Guttman, who works as a cargo agent for Swissport. “People are nervous about it. Doing more than one day would’ve been a lot to bite off.”

Cargo workers were expected to be joined by other airport workers, community members and elected officials supporting their fight for safer working conditions, according to a Monday news release from the Service Employees International Union.

While the cargo workers are not part of the union, they reached out to it for help after their Swissport strike notice gained 80 to 90 workers’ signatures.

Swissport handles airfreight and airport ground services at DIA, and the strike only should affect Amazon packages coming in and out of the airport, not commercial flights, Guttman said.

According to Swissport’s website, the company has provided airport ground services and managed an air cargo warehouse at DIA since 2006.

The DIA media relations team confirmed airport operations are expected to remain normal during the strike in an emailed statement to the Denver Post on Monday.

“We want management to take our concerns seriously, so hopefully this is a way to get that to happen,” Guttman said. “If it’s not, we’ll keep working to get them to pay attention. We want to organize this because it matters to us.”

Guttman said the strike is an escalation of petitions that management hasn’t responded to — the first being circulated a year ago in December 2022 and the most recent being filed in August.

The petitions called out faulty and broken equipment, dangerous working temperatures at facilities, heaters not functioning during winter weather, and inadequate safety training.

“We’re trying to get their attention, and we knew we had to go bigger in some way,” Guttman said. “After the second petition was circulated in August, we gave them a deadline of the following month to respond. When that didn’t happen, we had never stopped talking to each other and this strike just felt like the next natural thing.”

Earlier this year, Swissport workers at DIA alleged a warehouse fire broke out after a loading truck struck a floor heating machine that was exposed without any protections in place, according to SEIU’s Monday release.

“I’ve just seen too many of my coworkers get hurt and be put in dangerous situations at work over the past year,” Guttman said. “We’ve delivered petitions, filed multiple OSHA complaints, and Swissport has refused to address the real safety concerns that are putting our lives at risk on the job.”

Denver workers aren’t alone in these issues.

Last December, Swissport workers at the Chicago O’Hare airport also went on strike to call out unfair labor practices. In June, Swissport workers at Boston Logan International Airport, Dulles International Airport, and LaGuardia followed.

In a statement, Swissport officials said the company is “unwavering” in its commitment to following operating permit requirements and labor regulations while “fostering a workplace that values the rights and well-being of our employees while maintaining operational compliance with industry standards.”

“Most of our employees fulfilled their scheduled hours and did not participate in the work stoppage,” Swissport officials said in a statement. “Swissport continues to proactively address any issues or concerns raised by our team, reinforcing our enduring commitment to cultivating a positive and supportive work environment.”

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While gas prices across the country have been decreasing for three months, Colorado has some of the fastest-falling gas prices in the country, according to a Monday report from AAA.

The news couldn’t come at a better time for travelers, as AAA expects more than 115 million travelers to hit the roads during the holiday season, from Dec. 23 to Jan. 1, according to their Monday report.

As of Monday morning, the average price per gallon in Denver sat at $2.60 and national prices averaged $3.11, according to a news release from GasBuddy. Colorado’s average hit $2.78 per gallon Monday.

“For the 12th straight week, or three straight months, the national average has continued to decline, now at its lowest level of 2023 heading into the prime of the holiday season as oil prices continue to struggle amidst cooling demand,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, stated in Monday’s news release. “With nearly 80,000 gas stations in the U.S. now priced below $3 per gallon, and 23 states also seeing average prices of $2.99 or less, motorists are getting substantial relief at the pump in time for the holidays.”

According to GasBuddy price reports, the cheapest station in Denver was priced at $1.93 per gallon yesterday while the most expensive was $3.99 per gallon, a difference of $2.06, the news release stated. Denver’s cheapest station had the lowest price per gallon in the state.

Other areas are seeing low prices as well, with Fort Collins averaging $2.86 per gallon and Colorado Springs averaging $2.66 per gallon. Drivers can check where their county falls online with GasBuddy’s interactive map.

“The trend is likely to continue in most states this week, while the national average could soon fall below $3.05 per gallon, the lowest since 2021,” De Haan stated in the release.

With falling seasonal demand, prices are expected to continue dropping through the end of the year and into early 2024, AAA stated in the report.

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4:36 p.m.: Westbound Interstate 70 at Golden has reopened to traffic.

Interstate 70 was closed in several places across Colorado on Friday for crashes as a winter storm moved across the mountains and into metro Denver.

Eastbound I-70 was closed at Glenwood Springs through Glenwood Canyon to exit 129 for Bair Ranch due to a pileup crash at Hanging Lake tunnel, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation. The closure was reported at 2:20 p.m.

An 18-vehicle pileup closed westbound I-70 between west Parachute and De Beque as of 11:08 a.m.

Westbound I-70 in Golden is closed at C-470 after an oversized tractor-trailer hit a bridge Friday morning, according to the Colorado State Patrol. Traffic is being diverted.

This is a developing story. 

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None of the injuries were life-threatening, said Master Trooper Gary Cutler. The crash involved 17 passenger vehicles and four semi-trucks.

CDOT reported the closure between exit 72 for west Parachute and exit 62 for De Beque at 11:08 a.m.. The highway did not reopen until 5:42 p.m., according to the agency’s website.

The highway was also closed in both directions at Glenwood Springs due to a crash, according to the agency, and westbound lanes in Golden were closed because a tractor-trailer hit a bridge.

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The highway was closed for more than five hours on Friday after the Colorado State Patrol reported the closure in Golden at 11:06 a.m. Traffic was diverted to Colorado 470.

No injuries were reported and the Colorado Department of Transportation responded to the bridge.

The truck that was wedged under the bridge was carrying an 80,000-pound load, the state patrol posted on X.

Interstate 70 was also entirely shut down for about four hours in Glenwood Springs due to a crash, and westbound lanes are closed in DeBeque due to an 18-car pileup.

The Colorado Department of Transportation reported the closure of the east lanes at 10:11 a.m. from exit 111, South Canyon, to exit 114, West Glenwood.

The department announced the lanes were reopened at 1:53 p.m.

Westbound lanes of the interstate are closed in De Beque due to an 18-car pileup and in Golden at Colorado 470 after a tractor-trailer with an oversized load hit a bridge.

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The I-25 widening to add express toll lanes between Fort Collins and Berthoud includes a new kind of center-of-the-highway Bustang platform — Colorado Department of Transportation officials call it a “multimodal hub” — designed to reduce bus travel time.

But state transportation and political leaders, gathered by that hub, also acknowledged planning forecasts of worsening traffic congestion over the next 25 years. Colorado’s population is expected to grow by more than 1 million before 2050 and the latest Denver Regional Council of Governments study concluded total vehicle miles traveled will increase by 40%, leading to worse I-25 congestion by 2 p.m. in 2050 than the current bumper-to-bumper I-25 traffic around 5 p.m.

CDOT officials say simply widening roads will not prevent paralyzing jams. Federal government officials, key players in securing transportation funding, concur.

“We’re being overwhelmed by the growth,” the Federal Highway Administration’s Colorado Division director John Cater said, adding that an “all-of-the-above” approach including trains and more bicycles will be necessary.

The I-25 Northern Express Lanes project, for now at least, addresses urgent needs for a reliable flow along I-25 by off-loading drivers who can afford to pay toll fees out of main lanes and onto express lanes. The new express lanes are scheduled to open Dec. 15 with toll fees waived until 2024.

This expansion also incentivizes car-pooling by giving free long-term access to express lanes for vehicles carrying three or more riders. The central Bustang platform at Loveland — more of these are planned — lets bus drivers along the Denver-to-Fort Collins route pull out of express lanes without lumbering across non-express lanes to drop off and pick up passengers. CDOT officials said this will shave 10 minutes to 15 minutes off travel time between Fort Collins and Denver.

A final phase of the northern I-25 expansion – widening a six-mile stretch between Mead and Berthoud, starting next spring – will mean at least three lanes along I-25 from Denver to Fort Collins. That builds on the recent widening of I-25 south of Castle Rock, another project that incorporated express lanes.

The expansions bring wider highway shoulders for emergency access as state safety officials increasingly raise safety concerns. Roadway fatalities in Colorado have increased from around 400 a year a decade ago to more than 760 last year, government records show.

Multiple new bridges installed along I-25 — the 35 completed so far include five overhauled interchanges — enabled the improvement of a 45-mile bicycling and walking trail along the Cache Le Poudre River, giving residents and wildlife better access to natural open space.

I-25 now “is safer,” Gov. Jared Polis told a crowd of CDOT employees, contractors, and elected officials Thursday morning at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. “It is more efficient. It saves people time getting to where they want to go.”

Polis cited the I-25 project as “a great example of how you can do lane expansion as well as multi-modal” that encourages bus riding and car-pooling.

“I don’t know what’s going to be happening in 2050,” Polis said in an interview. “But by then we’ll be working on Front Range Rail.”

A $500,000 federal grant awarded to Colorado this week is meant to spur planning for train travel along the I-25 corridor from Fort Collins to Pueblo.

The planning for a northern I-25 expansion began more than two decades ago. State and local governments initiated a required environmental impact study in 2001. At first, the project was scheduled to be done by 2035.

But rapid population growth in northern Colorado compelled faster action and a coalition of local and state officials, developers and lawmakers mobilized to compress timelines and get more work done.

“Waiting just wouldn’t have worked. Traffic would have been grid-locked,” said Steve Adams, the city manager in Loveland, where the population of around 80,000 residents has increased by nearly 50% over the past two decades.

“We are looking forward to having this done,” Adams said of the I-25 expansion, adding that future mobility also will require a broadened approach.

“We won’t be able to build enough roads to get out of the congestion. We will want to increase other modes. That’s why this hub is so important,” he said.

Last year, state transportation officials canceled a long-planned expansion of I-25 through often-clogged stretches in central Denver due to rising concerns about the environmental impacts of pollution from vehicles burning gas and diesel. That project depended on Colorado receiving federal transportation funding, and government agencies increasingly are prioritizing mass transit and other options that lead to less pollution.

“Widening freeways and adding express lanes can be a solution at times and mitigate some of the worst impacts,” said Robert Spotts, the manager of DRCOG’s mobility analytics program. “But we need to look at all congestion mitigation strategies. These include more people working from home. We need to get people out of single-occupant vehicles, whether that means shifting them into transit or carpools. It is going to take all hands on deck, all forms of congestion mitigation, to reduce the worst impacts that are coming.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration are set to announce that the rail project will be included in the Corridor Identification and Development Program, according to a news release issued Wednesday by U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, a Democrat from Lafayette. The program is a major component of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that aims to facilitate the development of intercity passenger rail corridors across the nation.

Front Range rail’s inclusion could mean significant money from the federal government over the coming years as the project moves closer to reality. Among its chief boosters is Gov. Jared Polis.

“This corridor stretches across more than 160 miles, connecting 13 of the most populous counties across the state and acting as a transportation ‘spine’ for the Front Range,” Neguse said in a statement. “I am excited to see this project become a reality for our growing communities.”

A formal announcement about the money and the corridor plan is expected later this week. Ahead of that, members of Congress in several states have publicized other corridors’ selection, too.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law contained $66 billion in additional funding for rail, including $1.8 billion for the Corridor ID Program and even more to support federal and state partnerships. This is the first step in identifying projects worthy of funding.

The $500,000 from the FRA for Front Range Passenger Rail comes after the project assembled nearly $4 million in funding in late 2021 to pay for studies to gauge the viability of the rail line, including a service plan. Of that total, $1.6 million came from the Colorado Transportation Commission’s reserves.

Andy Karsian, the general manager of the Front Range Passenger Rail District, a taxing district established to help fund the project, said the feds’ initial half million dollars “will go toward the technical work necessary to quantify costs and service for the new corridor.”

Early estimates have put the cost for a starter system — likely to be operated by Amtrak in a partnership — at $1.7 billion to $2.8 billion, with as many as six trains a day running mostly on shared freight tracks connecting cities including Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Denver and Fort Collins.

The first passenger trains between Fort Collins and Pueblo could be rolling within the next decade, Karsian said. Later upgrades to speed up service and add more frequent trains would add billions of dollars to the cost.

Karsian said federal officials’ selection of the project for the Corridor ID Program is significant because it plugs Front Range rail into a stream of “dedicated federal dollars designed to build this project.”

“That’s where Colorado is and that’s why we’re so excited to be part of the program,” he said.

Karsian said the district is about halfway through the planning process for the rail line, which it hopes to wrap up by the end of next year. After that, the project will need to move through the all-important environmental clearance process.

There’s also the politically fraught question of whether and when to ask voters living in the rail district to approve a sales tax to help pay for the project. That’s possible as soon as next fall.

Polis issued a statement Wednesday lauding Front Range rail’s inclusion in the federal rail corridor program.

“Front Range Passenger Rail will modernize our transit system, save people money, and support jobs and housing across our state,” he said. “I applaud the Department of Transportation and the Biden administration for securing and providing this funding, and for recognizing the need for this service and the promise to get it done soon.”

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After two summers of minor road impacts related to the project, Colorado Department of Transportation executive director Shoshana Lew said Tuesday, Dec. 5, that crews have wrapped up work on the project.

“This is anticipated to reduce crashes, help people move around each other in rough conditions, make it easier for freight traffic, single-occupancy vehicles, buses — everyone,” Lew said. “This area, as we all know, experiences very high volumes of traffic, particularly on the weekends, and in the winter we’re navigating weather conditions as we just saw over the weekend.”

With construction costs totaling around $24 million, the I-70 auxiliary lane project included the construction of an additional lane along approximately 3.5 miles of eastbound I-70 between Frisco and Silverthorne, according to the transportation department.

Read more at summitdaily.com.

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The section of roadway from Carbondale to Basalt between mile markers 2.5 in Gypsum to 12.5 will be reopened in April, or when weather conditions allow.

The county will announce when the roadway will reopen at a later time.

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