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Grading of bluffs to be done in 2 months
Seven earthmovers are grading bluffs to prevent a potential landslide onto Interstate 25 nearly 2 miles south of Lincoln Avenue in northern Douglas County.
By By: Christine McManus
Seven earthmovers are grading bluffs to prevent a potential landslide onto Interstate 25 nearly 2 miles south of Lincoln Avenue in northern Douglas County.
Recent I-25 expansion work cut into the hillside in southern Lone Tree. Existing gullies on the hills began to crack more widely open and the hills began moving, said Paul Jesaitis, an engineer with the Colorado Department of Transportation.
Several gullies were 100 feet across and 20 feet deep, Jesaitis said.
"It never was a very stable area. We have evidence that there were ancient landslides in the area," Jesaitis said. "There was significant erosion before we started construction, and it didn't help when the construction was done."
CDOT crews will push more than 192,000 cubic meters of dirt north, spreading it across the open grazing fields owned by Colony Investments, Jesaitis said. Crews will sculpt the slopes from an incline of two horizontal feet per vertical foot to three horizontal feet per vertical foot, Jesaitis said.
Grading should be finished in two months, Jesaitis said. CDOT will revegetate the slopes. Crews then will pave a 10-foot shoulder on the west side of southbound I-25.
The original engineering report for the I-25 expansion work indicated the slopes' instability could be problematic, Jesaitis said. It took several months after expansion work was finished to drill core samples into the hills, so that engineers could present a solution.
Last year during expansion work below the hills, archaeologists found prehistoric fossils of rain forest leaves.
A research study sponsored by the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, called the Denver Basin Project, has shown signs that the region was once a rainforest 55 to 65 million years ago.
Recent I-25 expansion work cut into the hillside in southern Lone Tree. Existing gullies on the hills began to crack more widely open and the hills began moving, said Paul Jesaitis, an engineer with the Colorado Department of Transportation.
Several gullies were 100 feet across and 20 feet deep, Jesaitis said.
"It never was a very stable area. We have evidence that there were ancient landslides in the area," Jesaitis said. "There was significant erosion before we started construction, and it didn't help when the construction was done."
CDOT crews will push more than 192,000 cubic meters of dirt north, spreading it across the open grazing fields owned by Colony Investments, Jesaitis said. Crews will sculpt the slopes from an incline of two horizontal feet per vertical foot to three horizontal feet per vertical foot, Jesaitis said.
Grading should be finished in two months, Jesaitis said. CDOT will revegetate the slopes. Crews then will pave a 10-foot shoulder on the west side of southbound I-25.
The original engineering report for the I-25 expansion work indicated the slopes' instability could be problematic, Jesaitis said. It took several months after expansion work was finished to drill core samples into the hills, so that engineers could present a solution.
Last year during expansion work below the hills, archaeologists found prehistoric fossils of rain forest leaves.
A research study sponsored by the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, called the Denver Basin Project, has shown signs that the region was once a rainforest 55 to 65 million years ago.
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