Giant rocks fall on Highway 119, closes lanes in Boulder Canyon

Rocks the size of SUVs fell on Highway 119 in Boulder Canyon. Aug. 6, 2012

BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — a rock slide sent giant boulders onto Highway 119 in Boulder Canyon Monday and the road was closed most of the time.

The Colorado Department of Transportation reopened one lane of the highway at 5 p.m. about 12 miles west of Boulder.

Crews spent the day moving boulders that were 10 feet in diameter in some cases. An official on the scene said there were four rocks on the road that were the size of Ford Expeditions.

Work to remove the large rocks will continue throughout the night and into Tuesday.

Motorists should expect delays through the day Tuesday while crews do work to bring down other loose rocks from the canyon wall. They want to get the down before they fall on their own.

Traffic will be stopped for up to 20 minutes at a time during the rock scaling project.