I-70 reopens after massive Colo. rock slide

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo., March 11 (UPI) -- Interstate 70 through Colorado's Glenwood Canyon reopened Thursday, three days after a rockslide of gigantic boulders covered the roadway in both directions.

One lane was opened in each direction with a 14-foot width restriction, state transportation department officials said.

The speed limit was reduced to 40 mph through the 16-mile canyon, whose walls climb as high as 1,300 feet above the Colorado River.

Traveling in one lane in each direction, rather than two, will continue for an undetermined number of weeks as an estimated $2 million in roadway and drainage-system repair work is completed, The Aspen Times reported.

The boulders -- some as large as tractor-trailers -- tumbled down and broke through the concrete roadbed in both directions.

A 20-foot-diameter boulder hanging precariously on a ledge about 900 feet above the highway was blasted away Wednesday, with helicopters lowering crews onto the boulder to drill holes into the rock and pack it with explosives, The Denver Post reported.

The closed segment of I-70 was the interstate highway's final leg and opened to traffic in 1992.