Truck caught in overnight rockfall in Glenwood Canyon. https://t.co/RdO5yvEVFf pic.twitter.com/Urr46SSBNE
Posted 8:54 a.m. | Updated 4:42 p.m. A major east-west highway in western Colorado will be closed until Thursday afternoon after the road was hit by a rock slide.
The slide occurred Monday night on Interstate 70 in Glenwood Canyon about 125 miles east of the Utah border. Highway officials shut down traffic in both directions along 24 miles of highway.
Amy Ford, spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Transportation, says that repairing the road and protecting against future rock slides means that even after Thursday, only one lane of I-70 will be open. Also, a pilot car will direct traffic in one direction, then flip and direct traffic in the reverse direction.
"There’s not the room, given the repairs that we need to make, nor some of the rock fall mitigation that will still be ongoing, for us to safely run head to head traffic," Ford said.
She says that will cause significant delays. A lane in both directions could be open sometime next week -- but it could take up to a month to open up all the lanes.
A truck was damaged in the rock slide but no one was injured.
The scenic canyon is so narrow that engineers had to design multiple tunnels, bridges and split-level lanes to accommodate the highway.
