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CDOT Works To Prevent Rockslides In High Country

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Sep 23, 2008 7:42 pm US/Mountain

CDOT Works To Prevent Rockslides In High Country

Good Question: How Do They Prevent Rockslides?

Written By Alan Gionet
Reporting
Alan Gionet
DENVER (CBS4) ― With millions of miles traveled on Colorado's roads every year, the Colorado Department of Transportation is faced with a dilemma. How do they protect people driving past rocks that, by nature, want to come down from up there, to down here?

"We try to identify these areas statewide where that occurs, and then we respond to those areas," said rock fall specialist Ty Ortiz.

They cannot identify for sure when a rock will let go, but "We can't predict exactly which rock is going to fall and when it's going to fall and where it's going to fall. It would be a little like predicting exactly when the tornado might hit or what block of the tornado might hit," Ortiz said. But he added, "We can identify areas that are likely to produce rock falls."

They look at traffic on the highways -- which are busier. Where do drivers have less of a chance to see a rock ahead? That's because more cars hit rocks than rocks hit cars. There's a rating system that includes, "A measurement of all the fracturing within the rock. So you take the spacing of all the fractures, you can take the aperture, how wide that fracture is," Ortiz said. The depth of the fracture is important. All of that tells them what's likely to come down.

CDOT works to protect more slopes every year, but they'll never get to all of them.

Find more in the Web Extra video clip to the upper right.

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