Posted on 05/26/2019 6:48:34 PM PDT by MtnClimber
DOLORES, Colo. (KKTV) - Boulders weighing a combined 10 million pounds destroyed a stretch of highway in southwestern Colorado and have left road crews with a daunting cleanup job.
"It’s truly mind-boggling that something that big came down," said Mike McVaugh, CDOT Regional Transportation director for southwest Colorado. McVaugh spoke with 11 News sister station CBS Denver about the job ahead.
The massive boulders were part of a rockslide Friday afternoon that rendered part of Highway 145 impassable. The slide left behind an 8-foot-deep trench where pavement once was.
According to CDOT, the trench was caused by the biggest boulder to fall, which weighs a whopping 8.5 million pounds and is roughly the size of a house. A second boulder landed on the highway that weighs 2.3 [million] pounds. Cleanup crews were dispatched immediately after the slide.
"They sent a plow truck out, they sent a supervisor out. They showed up on site and they were like, ‘That’s not going to work. We’ve got some really big rocks here,’” McVaugh said. “[The boulders] came off a cliff band about 850 feet above the highway."
(Excerpt) Read more at kktv.com ...
“Psst: Someone tell the Editor - Every 2000 pounds = 1 Ton”
Yeah, but “10 million pounds” helps fill the writer’s “Hype Quota for the Week”!
I’m surprised they didn’t list ounces.
Most folks dealing with moving rock & dirt would have said “yards” (cubic yards, about 2 tons)
The scariest highway has to be the I40 through the Smoky Mtns.
Carats even though that doesn’t appear to contain too many gems. So it 5 per gram. What do we have grams per oz? about 29 or 30.
I need that ballpark in how many carats!
I’m guessing they will throw a rope around that rock and pull it away with the 4 wheeler?
Avoirdupois or Troy ounces?
No, I have it!!
GRAINS - 7000 Grains in a Pound.
Knock that Schist off!!!
Thanks George76
Pretty wet spring so far loosening up the rocks.
They done blowed it up real good...
https://weather.com/news/trending/video/massive-boulder-blocks-colorado-highway
Did you see the video? Above is a long ridge with a cliff at the top that runs for a long distance. Below the cliffs is a fairly steep incline, approx. 45 degrees or steeper, that descends a good 1/4 mile or so to the highway/valley below. The boulders did travel a fair distance.
My takeaway from the video was that there are more huge boulders, in the form of the gradually decaying cliffside, that will eventually all come down. Over a very long period of time of course.
Put up a flag, call it a landmark.
A boulder the size of that second house would have wiped out the dinosaurs...
That’s the ticket!
Colorado should route the road around the boulder and then make it a state park with admission fees for those who want to take a selfie.
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