Traffic on I-70 near Grand Junction will be slowed for the next several days, as Colorado Dept. of Transportation workers clean up a rock slide that killed semi-trailer driver Patricia A. Bradshaw, 53.
More than 300 tons of rock and debris fell onto her truck Saturday night, as she was driving eastbound in DeBeque Canyon.
At least two of the boulders were larger than a sport utility vehicle, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation.
About 500 cubic yards of rock and debris, destabilized by last week’s heavy rains, fell onto Interstate 70 at milepost 57 at 9:10 p.m. Saturday, according to CDOT estimates.
Bradshaw’s red 2007 Peterbilt truck and semi-trailer were totaled, said Colorado State Patrol Master Sgt. Martin Petrik.
I-70’s eastbound lanes west of DeBeque remained closed until late Sunday, with semi-truck traffic diverted to U.S. 50, and other traffic detoured to Colorado 65.
At least through Wednesday, all I-70 traffic in the slide area will be reduced to one lane in each direction for a 4-mile stretch, with traffic restricted to the westbound side. CDOT crews and contractors will be blasting to bring down other unstable rock.
Bradshaw, who became a licensed trucker in 1995, loved driving through the West’s austere, grand open spaces, said her sister, Diane Bashem of Grand Junction.
A tough survivor who worked on road crews and other physically demanding jobs as she raised her two children, Bradshaw was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2001. She fought the cancer into remission.
“She worked so hard to fight it, and then this happened,” said her mother, Eileen Good of Florence.
Services for Bradshaw are pending at Callahan-Edfast Mortuary in Grand Junction.
The fatal rock slide occurred between mile markers 55 and 58, an area notoriously vulnerable to rock slides since 1900. Last month, a rock slide at mile marker 58 briefly closed I-70’s eastbound lanes on Aug. 21 and 22.
Rock slides present a constant hazard in Colorado, with loose rock abetted by the fall and spring freeze-thaw cycles.
Slides rarely result in fatalities, but frequently close highways, unpaved roads and trails, including McClure Pass, U.S. 550, many canyons and certain stretches of I-70. A 1994 state study found 700 active rock- slide areas along state highways.
In two decades, more than 100 accidents involving rocks and vehicles have occurred on the 2-mile span of I-70 between Georgetown and Silver Plume, according to CDOT.
Those slides rarely result in fatalities.
Colorado Geological Survey geologist John White said fatal vehicle-rock-slide accidents in Colorado are less likely than fatal tornado-related accidents in Kansas and Oklahoma.
Notable exceptions to that rule include two motorists killed in 2003 when boulders smashed through windshields; two people killed in separate rock-vehicle accidents near Georgetown in 1999; and 14 people who died in 1987 when a boulder crashed into a tour bus near Georgetown.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-954-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
