Posted on 06/06/2019 12:52:58 PM PDT by Red Badger
A 8.5-million- pound boulder that demolished a Colorado mountain highway May 24 will stay in place and the road will be rebuilt around it, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said. Photo courtesy of Colorado Department of Transportation
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DENVER, June 5 (UPI) -- Colorado has a new Instagram-worthy landmark. An 8.5-million-pound boulder that rolled off a cliff and demolished a section of mountain highway has been renamed "Memorial Rock," Gov. Jared Polis said.
It would have cost the Colorado Department of Transportation $200,000 to blow up the boulder with dynamite and haul it away, but instead the department will rebuild Highway 145 to wind around the giant rock described as "the size of a house" between Cortez and Telluride in southwestern Colorado, Polis said.
"We expect that for generations to come, people will have the opportunity to observe this geological masterpiece that we're calling Memorial Rock," Polis said at a news conference earlier this week.
As part of a rock slide, two giant boulders tumbled about 2,000 feet from a mountain ledge onto the highway at the start of Memorial Day weekend. Transportation officials destroyed the smaller 2.3-million-pound rock with explosives.
The enormous boulder rock blocked traffic and closed down the highway. A local restaurant had to cancel their long-awaited Memorial Day motorcycle ride.
"There's a huge avalanche-size scar down the side of the mountain," said Brandy Randall, co-owner of the Enterprise Bar and Grill up the canyon from the rock in Rico, Colorado.
"Our maintenance guy was stuck in [the neighboring town of] Dolores for five days," said Rico's Town Manager Kari Distefano.
The highway will be widened with additional shoulder and a new guardrail will be installed near the rock, Lisa Schwantes, the transportation department's southwest Colorado spokeswoman, told UPI.
Fixing the two-lane highway will cost about $1.3 million, Polis said, but most of that money will come from emergency funds from the Federal Highway Administration.
"We lost a ton of business, but we hope people come back up later this summer," Randall said. "We were told the highway would be fixed by the Fourth of July."
"Everybody meet Memorial Rock.
"We will not be destroying this 8.5 million pound boulder - which is the size of a house. Instead, we're going to make a new state landmark and save taxpayers money.https://t.co/BlkgnKwBEM- Jared Polis (@GovofCO) June 4, 2019
“Hey, Mabel, let’s go to Colorado and see the Big Rock!”.................
Neat.
Finally a good decision by govt.
To be completely covered by graffiti from local teens and tourists in 3 - 2 - 1...
Jose was here
It’s also a good reminder to motorists that yes, stuff happens.
“this geological masterpiece that we’re calling Memorial Rock”
I say we should call it Pelosi’s Head.
I suggested this very thing a few weeks ago.
Sometimes, you have to go with events as they happen.
To remove that monster would cost too much municipal money and too many man hours. There are other issues going on far more pressing. This is called making Lemondade from Lemons.
Some may even call it an Act of God.
Perhaps they should move it to see who is flat under there.
You're right. You could get at least five families of Mexicans inside there...................
People will be chipping off pieces of it for a hundred years..................
From this event, now businesses will spring up.
“Meet me at the “Big Rock Cafe & Gift Shoppe!.
You know where that is.”
Probably the same aliens that created the crop circles in the post 6 photo!
My thought too
Very confusing. I ask the Uber driver to take me to Boulder and I wind up here.
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