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Massive boulder tumbles across Colorado highway, leaving 8-foot trench

The two rocks weighed nearly 11 million pounds combined, officials said.
The boulders appeared to cut a giant path into a slope as they tumbled from the rim of a mountain onto a remote road in Colorado.
The boulders appeared to cut a giant path into a slope as they tumbled from the rim of a mountain onto a remote road in Colorado.Colorado Department of Transportation

A state highway in Colorado remained closed on Sunday after a massive rock slide left an 8-foot gash across the road and a boulder “the size of a building” blocking it, officials said.

The boulder that sliced across Colorado State Highway 145 on Friday weighed an estimated 8.5 million pounds, the state Department of Transportation said.

A rockfall in Colorado sent two giant boulders weighing millions of pounds onto a remote state highway
A rockfall in Colorado sent two giant boulders weighing millions of pounds onto a remote state highway.Colorado Department of Transportation

The second rock, which officials said was 48 feet tall and weighed an estimated 2.3 million pounds, became “embedded” in the remote road in the state’s southwestern corner, the department said in a Facebook post.

Officials said removing the rock will require blasting it into smaller pieces.

No injuries were reported and it wasn’t clear when the two-lane highway would reopen.

An aerial video appeared to show the giant path the boulders cut into a slope as they tumbled toward the road.