A rocky season in Colorado began on cue on March 8 with a rockslide on Interstate 70 near Glenwood Springs. It punched holes in a bridge and dumped boulders the size of semitrucks on the highway, closing a 17-mile stretch. Four days later, the Colorado Dept. of Transportation announced that Flatiron Construction Corp. of Longmont, Colo., was the apparent low bidder for the contract to repair damage. The job includes 400 linear ft of westbound barrier, 150 linear ft of eastbound steel bridge rail, a design-build fix of 460 sq ft of retaining wall, 500 tons of base course and 400 tons of patching asphalt.
CDOT crews spent most of the following four days blasting 20 boulders ranging in size from 3 ft to 10 ft in diameter, with the largest estimated to weigh 66 tons. Before the highway reopened, CDOT geologists also scaled the hillside to assess the stability of the existing rock. They removed loose rocks with pry bars and blasted larger rocks that were determined to be unstable.