Crews were still unable to begin clearing a rock slide on U.S. 50 on Tuesday afternoon after a geologist determined that the mountainside was unstable and that additional scaling was needed.
There is no timetable for when the work might begin.
“They’re not letting crews in there until they know it’s safe,” Colorado Department of Transportation spokesman Ted Hill said Tuesday evening.
The slide, about 20 feet deep and 100 feet wide, closed the highway about a mile west of Cotopaxi on Monday afternoon, according to Stacey Stegman, a department spokeswoman.
The slide blocked the entire roadway, with rocks ranging from the size of a softball to nearly 20 feet wide.
It was unknown whether there is damage to the roadway.
The highway is closed from Colorado 9, west of Cañon City, to Salida.
There is some local access, Stegman said.
Stegman said motorists on U.S. 50 are being rerouted about 100 miles out of the way.
Annual daily averages from CDOT estimate that about 7,500 vehicles use that stretch of road every day, although that number is probably reduced during winter months, Stegman said.
Jordan Steffen, The Denver Post
