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The Key is the Tunnel
If the west I-70 problem were approached on the basis of increased efficiencies alone rather than cost, a 3rd Eisenhower tube would be built.
Combine that with 2 additional lanes that can have reversible direction and have these lanes have less exits than do the rest of the lanes, and, the I-70 situation would remain tolerable for a couple of decades, even at today's rate of use growth rate.
Of course, the tighter the budget, the more site specific improvements must be. At the very least, in those sections where adding a lane or two would be relatively easy, lanes should be added.
In any transportation system the first way to improve average speed at high traffic loads is to remove choke points. If that is politically unfeasible, then changes should be made where traffic that has passed through the choke point moves at a higher average speed at full traffic load. The hardest variable to deal with, if a choke point is left as is, is handling traffic that is approaching the choke point, as the vehicles per hour (whether steel or rubber wheeled) will not exceed a maximum and this maximum ripples up the incoming traffic direction.
Basically, traffic through the Eisenhower Tunnels is maxed out at peak traffic loads, and, other than adding capacity to the tunnel, the best that can be done is increase the average speed of traffic once the traffic has passed through the tunnel.
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