Golden – Millions of pounds of rock roared down onto U.S. 6 in narrow Clear Creek Canyon on Tuesday morning, trapping two semi-trailers with boulders as big as minivans and pummeling a passenger car.
One truck driver suffered moderate injuries in the slide about 10 miles west of Golden. He was taken to St. Anthony Central Hospital. His name and condition were not released.
Happy to be alive was Ron Franklin, 46, of Henderson, who was driving west a few car lengths behind one of the gravel-hauling semis trapped by the slide.
“I’m feeling very lucky. I’m feeling very blessed,” said Franklin, whose 1993 Chevy Lumina was caught in the edge of the slide. “I thought I was gone. It was like a movie.”
Popular with Black Hawk and Central City gamblers, U.S. 6 was closed on the east from the intersection with Colorado Highways 58 and 93 in Golden and on the west at Colorado 119. The slide occurred about a mile east of where Colorado 119 forks off from U.S. 6.
State highway officials said U.S. 6 will remain closed for at least a week so engineers can inspect the mountainside to determine its stability and to allow enough time for crews to clear the road.
“We’re just asking motorists to be patient,” said Mindy Crane, a Colorado Department of Transportation spokeswoman. “This is an act of Mother Nature. It’s not anything we can control. … We’re going to get it cleaned up as fast as we can.”
In the interim, motorists wishing to get to Black Hawk and Central City are advised to take Interstate 70 to Exit 244 and then go east on U.S. 6 about 3 miles to Colorado 119, or take the Central City Highway exit off I-70.
In all, at least 1,200 tons of metamorphic rock – equivalent to the weight of more than 200 elephants – tumbled to the roadway, leaving a deep gouge in the rock face that looked as if it had been carved by a giant ice-cream scoop. The debris covered both lanes of the road, stretched for the length of a football field and was more than 15 feet deep in some places.
The slide occurred in an area that was already covered with heavy chain-link mesh to block rockfalls. Crane said the mesh works well to contain smaller rockfalls. But this, she said, was a “massive slope failure.”
Ultimately, gravity takes over, and no matter how much highway engineers try, rock slides can’t be prevented, said Jeff Coe, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
“Mountains tend to want to erode, and rocks and landslides are part of nature doing its work,” he said.
Over time, pummeling from wind and rain, freeze and thaw, opens up cracks in the rock, said Ty Ortiz, CDOT’s rockfall specialist. As the cracks get bigger, they slice through the rock and form an unstable edge just waiting for the right nudge to get it sliding.
Recent rains apparently caused the slope above the highway to fail, said Bob Wilson, another CDOT spokesman.
One of the semis’ gas tanks was ruptured by rock and leaked about 25 gallons of diesel fuel. Officials said the fuel was contained and did not flow into Clear Creek.
The two semi drivers were heading toward each other, each rounding a corner, when the rocks started to fall. Colorado State Patrol spokesman Eric Wynn said one driver blinked his lights at the other to get his attention, then both veered toward a small turnout on the south side of the road to avoid the slide. One of the semis came to rest within 4 feet of the ledge above Clear Creek.
“If they hadn’t taken evasive action, they would have been crushed,” Wynn said.
Franklin, a bus driver for RTD subcontractor Laidlaw, said he was out in his car applying for part-time jobs and decided to see about driving a charter bus to the gambling towns.
He had turned west on U.S. 6 at the intersection with Colorado Highways 58 and 93 when a semi with a blue cab cut in front of him.
“I was a little perturbed by that,” Franklin said. But reflecting later, he said, “I guess that happened for a reason,” because if he had been in front of the semi, his car would have been smashed by the slide.
Right after Tunnel 2, where the highway bends to the right, Franklin said, he saw the side of the mountain start to fall.
“When you see it coming down, you’re already in it,” Franklin said. “I covered my head and laid down on the seat. I heard boulders pounding the earth and hitting the road. I thought it wasn’t going to end.”
Franklin felt his car carried along with the slide. When everything stopped, he couldn’t see through the thick dust but jammed his car into reverse and gunned it out.
Once free of the debris, Franklin said, he jumped out. The left front side was banged up and his front license plate holder and rearview mirror hung by threads. The driver of the semi that had been traveling a few car lengths ahead crawled out of his cab.
“Man, you’re alive. I thought you were dead,” the driver told Franklin.
Nearly two hours later, Franklin’s hands were still shaking as he displayed four small rocks that he had taken off his car.
“I’m going to keep these,” Franklin said. “I’ll never forget this the rest of my life.”
Franklin shook his head in awe, saying there was no way he was going to drive a bus “up here in the hills,” when a friend, oblivious to what had happened, called on his cellphone.
“The rock slide,” Franklin said, trying to explain. “Man, I’m a survivor.”
Staff writer Felisa Cardona contributed to this report.
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
