UNITED STATES – A huge boulder that had collapsed in the middle of a Californian state highway, completely cutting off traffic, was pulverized this Friday, March 4 with explosives, as you can see in our video at the top of the article.
The rock, several meters high and wide, had been disrupting traffic on Route 50 since Thursday evening in the vicinity of Lake Tahoe, a highly touristic place that attracts many skiers each winter.
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) therefore decided to take action, sending teams on site to remedy the situation. He also launched the hashtag #Boulderwatch on social media, documenting on Twitter in an often ironic way all the efforts to reopen Route 50.
We were able to follow the workers in reflective parkas drilling the rocky monster then placing sticks of dynamite in the holes before blowing it all up. Videos thus show the rock flying into shards and dust, before earth-moving machinery clears the debris.
On Twitter, the Caltrans department responsible for this mountainous area in northern California wanted to “assure the public that no Bip Bip was injured” during the operation. “Vil Coyote is not responsible for the fall of the rock on the road. This time he is innocent”, he adds, in reference to the famous cartoon characters.
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While we wait for the blasting of the boulder on US-50 @ Echo Summit in @CountyElDorado, @CaltransDist3 wants to ensure the public no roadrunners or coyotes were injured & Wile E. Coyote was not responsible for this boulder falling onto the highway. He is innocent this time.😉 pic.twitter.com/xKOM7EJZaZ
— Caltrans District 3 (@CaltransDist3) March 4, 2022
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Traffic was able to resume on Friday afternoon, but a few hours later, Caltrans announced that a new landslide, at the same location on Route 50, had caused a new closure of the lane.
Route 50 runs west to east for nearly 5,000 km across much of the United States, connecting the Californian city of West Sacramento to Ocean City in Maryland, shortly after the federal capital Washington.
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