FREMONT COUNTY, COLO. -- Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) crews are continuing work on removing rocks that have been blocking U.S. Highway 50 just west of Cotopaxi, Colo. since Monday.
Officials said the process is going slow because crews have to blast, drill and hammer the large rocks to break them up before they can haul them away.
There are 10 trucks on site working to haul the rocks away.
CDOT officials said road damage appears to be minimal at this point.
An estimated 7,000 tons of rock came down during the Monday afternoon slide, which officials said is enough to fill about 30 average-sized swimming pools. About 300 truckloads of rock will be hauled away before the road is clear.
CDOT said the road, which has been closed since the slide, will not be open until at least Sunday, but possibly later.
The shortest detour is about 105 miles.
U.S. 50 remains closed between State Highway 9 at the Royal Gorge to Salida. The road is open to local traffic to Cotopaxi. Through traffic is being detoured via State Highway 9 to Hartsel, U.S. 24 west to Johnsons Village, and U.S. 285 south to Salida and Poncha Springs.
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Update:
Crews continue to work on breaking down large rocks into smaller pieces and removing them from U.S. 50 after a rockslide blocked the road just west of Cotopaxi, Colo. Monday.
Crews are drilling and blasting the rocks so they can be towed away, but the entire cleanup process is taking longer than expected. The Colorado Department of Transportation is still hoping to have the road reopened by the weekend, but officials said that deadline is uncertain.
U.S. 50 remains closed between State Highway 9 at the Royal Gorge to Salida. The road is open to local traffic to Cotopaxi. Through traffic is being detoured via State Highway 9 to Hartsel, U.S. 24 west to Johnsons Village, and U.S. 285 south to Salida and Poncha Springs.
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Update:
Crews have begun removing rock from U.S. Highway 50, taking it to a storage area about 12 miles east where there is room off the highway.
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Update:
Officials are hoping to begin cleanup of a rockslide that has been blocking U.S. 50 since Monday afternoon.
Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) officials said rockfall specialist and Yenter Co., a contractor, will conduct scaling activities to see if they need to knock down any loose rock. Once they knock down loose rock, they will be placing monitors on a portion of the rock to track additional movement, which will determine if they need to mitigate more rock.
CDOT also hired Kiewit, a contractor, to help with cleanup. Officials said they hope to begin cleanup Wednesday afternoon once the rock scaling is complete.
Once crews finish clearing the rock from the road, they will be able to assess damage and determine if the road will be drivable by the weekend.
CDOT officials said they do not know at this point how much the cleanup will cost.
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Update:
A massive rockslide blocking U.S. Highway 50 is in the beginning of the cleanup process. A group of specialists will scale the slide all day Wednesday and move any loose rocks to the pile below and spend the afternoon clearing the Highway. At 20 feet deep and 100 feet wide, the slide is one of the largest in years.
"Last time we had a significant rockslide was 10 years ago, and that was farther towards Parkdale. A rockslide of this size doesn't happen very often," Carl Valdez of the Department of Maintenance said.
The reason for the slide is still under investigation, but it looks like the culprit is the freezing/thawing of snow from the past few weeks.
While rockslides are nothing new to the area, the Colorado Department of Transportation crews will be monitoring this area for future movement.
"Right now we feel it's going to be stable, but over time you get water in there and that causes instability," Rockfall Specialist Ty Ortiz said.
U.S. Highway 50 is expected to open Friday evening depending on the severity of the road damage.
Reporter: Sade Malloy
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Update:
Colorado Department of Transportation officials said they will have to scale a rock wall along U.S. Highway 50 in order to clean up a rockslide that closed the road west of Canon City.
According to CDOT officials, a loose rock could release if cleanup begins on the road. Crews began scaling the rock wall at 2 p.m. Tuesday after rocks tumbled down to the road Monday afternoon.
Once the loose rock is released, cleanup will begin on the rock pile, which is 100 feet long by up to 25 feet wide.
No injuries have been reported.
The shortest detour is about 105 miles, routing vehicles north to Hartsel on U.S. 285 and Colorado 9. Highway officials say they don't when U.S. 50 will reopen.
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Update:
A Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) geologist is on the scene and evaluating the site of a rockslide on U.S. Highway 50 near Cotopaxi to see if it is stable or if additional scaling or mitigation is necessary.
A CDOT spokesperson said crews have been unable to clear the rockslide, which occured Monday afternoon, due to the slope instability but will begin work as soon as the area is deemed safe.
Because crews have not yet cleared the slide, it has not yet been determined if there is damage to the roadway.
Both directions of highway remain closed from State Highway 9 at the Royal to Gorge to Salida.
Through traffic is being detoured via State Highway 9 to Hartsel, U.S. 24 west to Johnsons Village, and U.S. 285 south to Salida and Poncha Springs.
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Original story:
Cleanup on a rockslide on U.S. 50 near Cotopaxi is expected to begin Tuesday.
The slide happened just before 4:30 p.m. Monday, closing both eastbound and westbound lanes of the highway about one mile from Cotopaxi (30 miles west of Canon City).
According to the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), that stretch of U.S. 50 is covered in rocks 15 to 20 feet deep and remains closed Tuesday morning.
The cause of the rock slide remains under investigation
Transportation workers recommend residents take a detour route along Colo. 9, U.S. 24 and U.S. 285.
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