House-sized boulder to stay; Colorado road will move instead

A boulder the size of a house that crashed onto a southwestern Colorado road over Memorial Day weekend is going to stay put.

Instead, the state plans to reroute the highway around it, saving taxpayers some money and possibly creating a tourist attraction.

Gov. Jared Polis, who announced the solution Tuesday, said the state will save about $200,000 by not blasting the 8.5 million pound boulder.

The rock was the largest involved in a rockslide that destroyed the pavement along a stretch of Colorado Highway 145 near Dolores on May 24.

It will cost about $1.3 million to re-route the road, some of which will come from federal emergency funding.

Polis said people will also have the opportunity to see what is being called “Memorial Rock.”