CSP Fruita courtesy photo
Two women suffered minor injuries Sunday after a rockslide hit Interstate 70 in western Colorado — in DeBeque Canyon — forcing closure of I-70 eastbound lanes.
“We’re not sure if the rocks hit them, or if they hit rocks that were on the road,” Colorado State Patrol spokesman Ivan Alvarado said. “Because of the canyon, our dispatchers were having a hard time communicating.”
The rockslide cut into highway traffic — the latest recent incident where the naturally unstable slopes in Colorado’s mountains impeded I-70 traffic.
Colorado Department of Transportation officials said it was unclear how much rock fell onto I-70 but some stones appeared larger than bowling balls. Rocks pounded holes in I-70 that may have to be plugged and patched.
“They said quite a bit. We don’t have a full estimate yet. It’s across both lanes, the eastbound lanes,” said Ted Hill, a CDOT spokesman in his agency’s operations center Sunday night.
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