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No injuries were
reported in the Monday slides, though three cars were damaged
and motorists were forced to take a nearly 150 mile detour, the
Colorado Department of Transportation said.
The four-lane section of Interstate 70 in Glenwood Canyon would
remain completely closed to traffic until at least Thursday as
crews worked to clear the fallen rocks and stabilize the slope,
the transportation agency said in a news release.
Engineers expect to open a single lane of the east-west highway
to alternating traffic later this week, resulting in delays of
at least one hour passing through the six-mile stretch, it said.
It was too soon to estimate the cost of repairs, transportation
officials said. The roadway was likely to be mostly closed for
several weeks as repairs continued.
The average daily traffic for Glenwood Canyon, about 125 miles
(200 km) east of the Utah border, is around 300 vehicles per
hour, the transportation department said.
Interstate 70 runs more than 2,100 miles (3380 km) from Maryland
to Utah.
(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Michael Perry)
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