GRAND JUNCTION – Nine days after a rock slide killed a semi-truck driver on Interstate 70 in DeBeque Canyon near Grand Junction, the Colorado Department of Transportation has reopened one of the eastbound lanes to traffic.
The reopening of that single lane comes after a CDOT contractor blasted 1,800 cubic yards of rock from the slide area. One lane will continue to be closed while crews finish cleaning up the debris from the blasting and replace about 100 feet of concrete barrier that was pushed into the westbound lanes by the slide that brought down several rocks larger than sport utility vehicles.
The slide that killed truck driver Patricia Ann Bradshaw of Grand Junction on Sept. 16 closed eastbound I-70 east of Grand Junction for several days. Eastbound traffic had been diverted into one lane of the westbound interstate since then.
Mitigation work on the slide area cost $200,000. The work was scheduled to be done in October after an earlier slide in August occurred at the same location. CDOT officials say heavy rain loosened the rock and caused a slide in an area that rockfall specialists had studied and deemed stable enough to wait for mitigation work in October.
