Colorado Department of Transportation crews have finished removing debris from last week’s rockslide on Bondad Hill, but long-term mitigation will have to wait.
“We’ve initiated in the region a plan to move forward to mitigate this site. We just need to find the funding, and we’re in the early stages of it,” said Edward Archuleta, program manager for CDOT Region 5.
Efforts to secure funding include limiting the scope of the project and acquiring a topographic survey, Archuleta said.
The larger issue is scarcity of funding for mitigation of geological hazards statewide. CDOT regions essentially compete for funds by presenting the potential impact of hazards to CDOT’s geotechnical team to evaluate, he said. The most important factors for such evaluation are frequency of hazardous events and the daily traffic rates through the troublesome corridor.
Unfortunately, Region 5, which includes Durango and La Plata County, is not always high on the geological hazard funding priority list, based on traffic, Archuleta said. The reliance on traffic rates is not popular within Region 5.
“This project should be high on the priority list because 550 is a major corridor for us,” Archuleta said.
An early evaluation of Bondad Hill’s slide will occur Friday morning when a local CDOT representative will teleconference with members of the geotechnical team.
In the meantime, CDOT is moving ahead with plans for mitigation of another problem area in La Plata County.
The rock removed from Highway 550 Tuesday is being stockpiled on Colorado Highway 172 near the Durango-La Plata County Airport, earmarked for erosion mitigation on Airport Hill, said Lisa Schwantes, communication manager for CDOT.
Airport Hill mitigation will take place within the next few weeks. It will include constructing a ditch along the northeast side of Highway 172 and using rocks from Bondad to create a retaining wall, Schwantes said in an email. Once the wall is in place, topsoil will be used to fill in behind it, and the area will be seeded in hopes of preventing further erosion.
The mitigation effort is necessitated by the geological makeup of the area, she said.
“The terrain on that hillside is made up of decomposed shale and will not support any vegetation, which assists with erosion control.”
Luke Perkins is a student at Fort Lewis College and an Intern at The Durango Herald. Contact him at Lukep@durangoherald.com
