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
You weigh a small sample of the same material then multiply................
They blew up one of those two boulders.
Obviously from the picture, the money has to be spent to repair the road whether they remove the rock or go around it. It’s not an either/or.
Seems like it would cost $200,000 + to reroute the road?
It is.............
Needs polishing.................
I think there is a bike rider underneath that rock : )
Shocking moment car is smashed by a massive BOULDER
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQn_3i8Y9zc
boulder rock falls on road from mountain next to car
https://youtu.be/SwfKeFA9iEo?t=16
Caught on tape: Huge rocks collapse, fall on highway in China
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcrRf8wY8YE
Italian landslide: Huge boulders destroy buildings in South Tyrol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5SiQqSroIw
Huge spool rolls off truck onto East Freeway in Houston
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p8PJqb63_8
Colorado state biologists have been on the scene since traces of Famishus Fantasticus fur has been detected near bottom of boulder.
“ads from local establishments.”
SEE ROCK CITY
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