Update On That Boulder That Crushed The Highway

Howdy folks! This is for #bouldersunday hosted by @shasta.

Last week I posted about a huge boulder than rolled down a mountain in Colorado and tore up highway 145. Actually it was 2 boulders but one crossed the road and landed on the other side, leaving an 8 foot deep ditch and the other landed right on the highway which totally blocked it.

Here's the one that landed on the highway:

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Here's an aerial view of both of the boulders. You can see the one on the left that crossed the highway and left a trench:

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Here's a close up of some of the highway damage:

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A Geo-Technical crew drilled 15-20 holes, 15 feet deep in the main boulder blocking the road and explosives were placed and they blew the thing into little rocks:

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I found out that there was a couple who were driving along the night that the landslide occurred and they narrowly escaped the boulders. Check this out from the durangoherald.com:

Ray Seeley and Dawn Whaley, both of Clifton, were driving southbound when they were struck by the rock slide.

“We came around the curve and saw dirt and rocks flowing across the highway,” Whaley said. “My boyfriend slammed on the brakes, and we were hit by debris. He threw it into reverse, and we backed up 20 feet until blocked by a downed power line behind us.”

When the dust settled, they had stayed on the road and were about 20 feet from a house-size boulder that landed in the middle of the road.

“It was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen. When I saw the size of the boulder, my knees went weak,” Whaley said. “We were very fortunate. Our guardian angels were watching over us.”

People behind the truck stopped on the other side of the downed power pole and rushed to check on them. The couple were uninjured, but the truck had been pummeled by rocks, including two cave-ins on the windshield.

A few seconds is the only thing that separated them from certain death!

Thanks for reading folks, have a great Sunday!