I'm don't know how people can deny climate change anymore

Wile E. Coyote never gets a break. I hope the timing on the second rockslide was perfect.

FTFA: This rockslide is not impacting travel on I-40 West because this section of I-40 West was already closed due to a rockslide in Tennessee.

Somebody was feeling snarky today

Sounds like a cover-up for another incident with some sort of secret society of rock people living beneath the rocks.

This is a repeat from just about every year since I have been living in this part of the country.

If they built tunnels like the Europeans, there wouldn't be a problem. For some reason, we're tunnel averse here in America.

/you can go look on Google Maps at the motorway east of Nice France into Italy for an example
//i know there's some tunnels in America, but nothing on the scale or road I'm referencing above and others like it in the alps

If there's anything I hate more than a rockslide...



...it's two rockslides!

12349876: If they built tunnels like the Europeans, there wouldn't be a problem. For some reason, we're tunnel averse here in America.

/you can go look on Google Maps at the motorway east of Nice France into Italy for an example
//i know there's some tunnels in America, but nothing on the scale or road I'm referencing above and others like it in the alps

Google "big dig" for your answer

/this is 'murica - when we fark things up, we fark 'em up good

The company I work for makes materials for mitigating just these kinds of events. Business is looking up in the Southeast!

12349876: If they built tunnels like the Europeans, there wouldn't be a problem. For some reason, we're tunnel averse here in America.

/you can go look on Google Maps at the motorway east of Nice France into Italy for an example
//i know there's some tunnels in America, but nothing on the scale or road I'm referencing above and others like it in the alps

Tunnels are expensive and americans can't look past the end of the quarter financially.

They'd rather have a "cheap" road that they have to fix every year than an "expensive" tunnel that they deal with once.

See also the difference in how we make our roads. They'll go very deep, build up a solid foundation and then put a solid layer on top that they can redo cheaply every few years. Problem is the doing deep part is expensive and slow.

Americans want it done cheap and fast. Except you need to tear it up and redo the road 2-3 times as often.

12349876: If they built tunnels like the Europeans, there wouldn't be a problem. For some reason, we're tunnel averse here in America.

/you can go look on Google Maps at the motorway east of Nice France into Italy for an example
//i know there's some tunnels in America, but nothing on the scale or road I'm referencing above and others like it in the alps

What makes you think the tunnels wouldn't be just as dangerous, if not more so?
Hint - in that part of the states they frequently don't use union labor.

Check the photo link on the side of the page. Why did they put a road in a place with the bedding planes failing onto the roadway? No sh*t there's a rockslide every year.

That is one of the most dangerous stretches of I-40. The engineers built that part of I-40 on the wrong side of the mountains. It is easy to see that the "grain" runs diagonal down toward the interstate so the rocks just slide off the the cuts.

/ yes I read that on the webs so it must be true.
// But it does make sense.
/// drive that section about once a year
/V four slashes

You mean the union labor that screwed the roof onto the big dig? The one that collapsed?

Yes, let's build a tunnel there, Tunnels are so safe and fool-proof (new window)

New Age Redneck: Check the photo link on the side of the page. Why did they put a road in a place with the bedding planes failing onto the roadway? No sh*t there's a rockslide every year.

This

As a recently graduated geologist I see this stuff and wonder: "Did this not get beaten into your head by the end of your freshman year like it did me?"
It's not THAT hard. Don't build your road in the middle of a syncline and you're good.
Then again who wants to bet that the road placement was done by an engineer who knows "everything" and didn't listen to the "newbie" geologist who pointed this out?

We also have NC 12 on the coast that gets over washed by every hurricane and nor'easter that goes by. We just keep rebuilding and hope it lasts until Jesus comes back (any day now)

Maybe they should scrap the damn thing and build a new road along US 25/70 like they should've done in the first place. That's the road I usually take through there anyway. Much more scenic and less death-trappy.

Cheesus: Maybe they should scrap the damn thing and build a new road along US 25/70 like they should've done in the first place. That's the road I usually take through there anyway. Much more scenic and less death-trappy.

Yes, Hwy 70 has been widened and rerouted so much over the last 40 years that it is tamer that I-40 now.