After weeks of harrowing rockfall work, one lane of U.S. 550 in southwestern Colorado is open to traffic on a limited basis. A massive rockslide closed the remote highway on Jan. 13. The rugged, two-lane road, also known as the Million Dollar Highway, winds over 11,018-ft-high Red Mountain Pass between the small towns of Silverton and Ouray.
The closure came when a section of rock the size of a football field sheared away from a towering cliff known as the Ruby Walls and sent 7,000 to 10,000 cu yd of debris onto the highway 900 ft below. Boulders punched holes in the roadway and created a slide zone 200 ft long and 8 ft deep.