Mousetrap (Denver)

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Mousetrap

Maintained by Colorado Department of Transportation

Colorado State Highways

The Mousetrap is an informal name for the highway interchange of I-25 and I-70 in the northern part of Denver, Colorado, USA.

[edit] History and Origin of Name

This Denver term was coined by the long-time airborne radio traffic reporter Don Martin in the 1960s. The name was derived from two sources:

From the air, the interchange vaguely resembled another type of the common household device used for trapping mice.

The interchange ramps from I-25 to I-70 (and vice versa) included unexpectedly sharp curves, some of which were left exits instead of right exits. In this context, the "mice" were large trucks which were "trapped" when their drivers rolled them over by trying to take the ramps at high speed.

In a famous incident on August 1, 1984, a truck transporting torpedoes overturned and the interchange had to be closed for most of the day.

[edit] Recent Improvements

Starting in 1987, CDOT (the Colorado Department of Transportation) has carried out a major reconstruction of the Mousetrap which has mitigated the dangers.