Intense thunderstorms July 10 close roads
PRESS RELEASE
July 11, 2011
2:15 pm – July 13, 2011
Red Canyon Road (County Road 115) has been reopened for travel. Advisory: the road was sprayed with magnesium chloride and will be drying in the next few hours.
5 pm – July 12, 2011
The Red Canyon Road closure is still in effect. Rain today has caused water runoff again, and while most of the rock clearing from the roadway is completed, wet conditions are causing the closure to continue. If the rain lessens, it is likely the road will open midday on Wednesday, July 13.
4:20 pm – July 11, 2011
Red Canyon Road will remain closed overnight with about 300 tons of rock remaining to haul, according to Garfield County Road and Bridge Foreman, Mike Prehm. He says the outside shoulder is still very soft and wet up to mile marker 1 on County Road 115. He has additional trucks and a trackhoe scheduled for work on July 12 to continue clearing work of the boulder field which fell in Sunday’s severe thunderstorm.
8 am – July 11, 2011
An intense fast-moving thunderstorm flooded Highway 82 Sunday afternoon, July 10, causing flooding, mudslides and extreme rockfall. Highway 82 northbound into Glenwood Springs was closed for a few hours while crews removed debris, mud and rocks.
County Road 115 (Red Canyon Road), was closed as well, and remains closed Monday. While crews are working to clear the road, Garfield County Road and Bridge District 1 Foreman, Mike Prehm, says persistent rains are preventing significant work progress. The driveway to a storage yard for electrical transformers Holy Cross Energy owns was buried in the mud and rockslides, and the electrical cooperative will have crews cleaning that away today as well.
County Road 113 (Cattle Creek Road), also flooded and was closed temporarily, but was reopened with muddy conditions along it from County Road 112 to Highway 82.
Garfield County Public Works Director Betsy Suerth warns drivers to be aware of the dangers with recent flooding. “All drivers need to be aware that mudslide and rockfall areas are dangerous. Don’t drive into water flowing over the roadway or mud flows and collections of mud and debris, as it is difficult to determine the depth of either material, and vehicles can be swept away in only a few inches of water or get stuck in the mud.”










