Driving You Crazy: What is with the dip on eastbound U.S. Route 36 on the other side of the I-25 bridge?

ADAMS COUNTY, Colo. — Janet from Westminster writes, “What’s driving you crazy? What is with the dip from east highway 36 on the other side of the I-25 bridge? There has been a road damage sign up for months and the noticeable dip has been there for years.”

My new nickname for this bump will be the launching pad after I watched a little box truck catch air going over it. This is not the only complaint I’ve received about this dip. This road damage is actually a double dip coming off the bridge over Interstate 25 for drivers transitioning from eastbound U.S. Route 36 to eastbound Interstate 270.

I first looked at the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) bridge inspection report from September 2021, and what I found was not good. The report starts with a red icon on the map indicating the bridge, “needs repair or corrective action.” The NBI uses a 0-9 scale to rate bridge condition with 9 being excellent and 0 being failed. The first line states the NBI Bridge Condition as good. Two lines down, though, it states that the structural evaluation is listed as 3 — “Basically intolerable requiring high priority of corrective action.” I did not see anything noted in the NBI report about the dip on the east side of the bridge.

I asked the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) about the dip and what is going to be done about it before someone loses control and gets into a crash. I was told by one engineer that the dip is a direct result of settling and less than optimal compaction of embankment soils about 60 feet below the road surface.

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“The bridge itself does not settle because it is on deep foundations into bedrock. The roadway embankment soils are settling to the east of the bridge. The dip is caused by the differential settlement between the fixed bridge and the settling roadway embankment soils,” CDOT said.

During my research on this road damage, I found this soil settling issue has been a known issue for years. I asked CDOT how long has this been a problem and how long has CDOT been trying to find a fix. I was told they started the design for this project in early 2024. However, I found that in 2006 CDOT wrote a report titled, “FLOWFILL AND MSE BRIDGE APPROACHES: PERFORMANCE, COST, AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVEMENTS.” That report describes how backfill material and concrete is placed next to approach slabs on either side of any bridge. CDOT writes in that report that since 1992, three new alternatives for the abutment backfill have been employed. However, bridge bump problems are still occurring. Later in that report it reads, “For structure E-17-QA, the eastbound US 36 bridge over I-25, it is suspected the bridge bump problem was created at the end of construction.”

Elsewhere in the report, it said this bridge was on the list of one of the Ten Bridge Structures with the Worst Flowfill Approaches in Region 6 with a price tag at the time of $30,000 to fix.

More recently, CDOT has put repairs to the bridge out to bid, but to this point, all previous bids have been rejected. CDOT again put the project out to bid on July 18, 2025 with the goal to start construction in the spring of 2026.

CDOT told me the design process for the spring project included taking numerous deep soil samples to understand the root cause of the settlement and then developing in-depth design plans for construction contractors to bid on. The actual repair work requires removing the concrete pavement and performing ground improvements to a depth of 60 feet below the surface. This needs to be done by a specialty contractor using methods such as rock columns, grout columns or other deep geotechnical ground improvements. Once the ground improvements are complete, a new concrete pavement would be placed on top of the improved soil that is flush with the bridge surface, effectively fixing the dip permanently. CDOT said the final cost will be known after a contractor has been selected.

I checked with the Colorado State Patrol and Trooper Gabriel Moltrer told me the agency has investigated 15 crashes in that area from Jan. 1, 2024 to Aug. 11, 2025. None of those crashes were fatal.

I asked CDOT, "If someone went over the road damage and lost control of their vehicle and crashed, could the state be liable for vehicle repairs/injuries?"

I was told, “The roadway is safe as long as motorists drive the speed limit. We have put signs in advance of the dip to provide additional warning to the drivers.”

Denver7 Traffic Expert Jayson Luber says he has been covering Denver-metro traffic since Ben-Hur was driving a chariot. (We believe the actual number is over 25 years.) He's obsessed with letting viewers know what's happening on their drive and the best way to avoid the problems that spring up. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram or listen to his award winning Driving You Crazy podcast on any podcast app including iTunes, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Podbean, or YouTube.