CLEAR CREEK, Colo. — Multiple people reported a large rock in the road on Interstate 70 in Clear Creek County on Wednesday, and the Colorado Department of Transportation has since moved it off the road.
The Clear Creek County Sheriff's Office said several people called the office about the large rock, which fell onto the interstate near milemarker 235 (Dumont area) just after noon. One of the people who called said they had seen it crash onto the road, but they were able to avoid the rock.
The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) has since moved the large rock off the road.
Spring means more warmth, more sunshine, and more non-frozen precipitation, which also means more thawing. And across Colorado, that results in more rockfall.
Each year on average, the CDOT's Geohazards Team responds to 40 to 50 rockfalls that require additional investigation or response, the department told Denver7 in 2023. CDOT monitors more than 750 locations recognized as having chronic rockfall hazards.
"Rockfall can happen anytime on roadways around the state," Elise Thatcher with CDOT explained during our 2023 interview. "We have literally hundreds of locations where rockfall has been identified to be a potential risk at times. The spring is an especially common time for rockfall. This is because of what's called the freeze-thaw cycle."
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'Rockfall can happen anytime' in Colorado, especially in the spring
She said that some of the most common areas for rockfall in Colorado are De Beque Canyon near Grand Junction, Glenwood Canyon near Glenwood Springs, and Dowd Canyon (or Dowd Junction) near Vail Pass.
CDOT reported that in a typical year, it will spend about $6 million on rockfall-related activities, which includes not only emergency responses affecting transportation but also proactive mitigation efforts.
Watch a collection of CDOT's rockfall mitigation work in the video below.
