--- title: Colorado Highway Rocked By 8.5 Million-Pound Boulder description: Colorado officials have decided to reroute traffic around a massive boulder that crash-landed on a state highway rather than destroy the rock. canonical: https://time.com/5602210/colorado-boulder-highway/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-06-06T15:07:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:59:08.453Z og:title: Colorado Highway Rocked By 8.5 Million-Pound Boulder's Crash Landing og:description: The massive rock left an 8-foot trench in the roadway og:url: https://time.com/5602210/colorado-boulder-highway/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt06bac9e7109ec72d/69894ade8fd2eed70c35e5d0/colorado-boulder-highway-traffic.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: colorado-boulder-highway-traffic og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Colorado Highway Rocked By 8.5 Million-Pound Boulder's Crash Landing twitter:description: The massive rock left an 8-foot trench in the roadway twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt06bac9e7109ec72d/69894ade8fd2eed70c35e5d0/colorado-boulder-highway-traffic.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Colorado Highway Rocked By 8.5 Million-Pound Boulder's Crash Landing  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jun 6, 2019 3:07 PM UTC  A massive boulder will stay put on Colorado Highway 145. A massive boulder will stay put on Colorado Highway 145.Colorado Dept. of Transportation  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jun 6, 2019 3:07 PM UTC [Colorado](http://time.com/5586563/colorado-school-shooting-hero-students/) officials have decided to reroute traffic around a 8.5-million-pound [boulder that crash-landed](http://time.com/5177339/chesapeake-ohio-rock-slide-boulder-route-7/) on a state highway rather than destroy the massive rock. Democratic Gov. Jared Polis announced Tuesday that Colorado will spend $1.3 million — some of which will come from federal emergency funding — to reroute Colorado Highway 145 instead of shelling out $1.5 million to blow the boulder up. This move will not only save $200,000 in taxpayer money, but will also allow Colorado to turn the boulder into a new state landmark dubbed “Memorial Rock.” “We expect that for generations to come, people will have the opportunity to observe this geological masterpiece that we’re calling Memorial Rock,” Polis said at a Tuesday news conference, according to the [_Denver Post_.](https://www.denverpost.com/2019/06/04/colorado-rockslide-highway-145-memorial-rock/) > [](https://twitter.com/GovofCO/status/1136030438697394178) The boulder, which is reportedly the size of a house, was the largest in a rockslide that ravaged roadways outside the town of Dolores on May 24\. It left an 8-foot trench in Highway 145 as it slid across the pavement. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5602210/colorado-boulder-highway/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5602210/colorado-boulder-highway/"},"headline":"Colorado Highway Rocked By 8.5 Million-Pound Boulder's Crash Landing","datePublished":"2019-06-06T15:07:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:59:08.453Z","description":"The massive rock left an 8-foot trench in the roadway","url":"https://time.com/5602210/colorado-boulder-highway/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Colorado","Bizarre","nature"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt06bac9e7109ec72d/69894ade8fd2eed70c35e5d0/colorado-boulder-highway-traffic.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt06bac9e7109ec72d/69894ade8fd2eed70c35e5d0/colorado-boulder-highway-traffic.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"colorado-boulder-highway-traffic","caption":"A massive boulder will stay put on Colorado Highway 145.","creditText":"Colorado Dept. of Transportation","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5602210/colorado-boulder-highway/","name":"Colorado Highway Rocked By 8.5 Million-Pound Boulder's Crash Landing"}}]}] ```