I-70 Closed and California Zephyr Cancelled by Mudslides

(Some of the photos have satellite locations)

Stuart Gardner posted twelve photos with the comment: "Glenwood Canyon got hit again yesterday [July 31, 2021] about 2 hours after I left. I just got back into town and I was checking the radar on my phone and there it was, all red all over the canyon. I hiked up a couple of the draws yesterday, and from the flow evidence I estimate we got 1500 to 2000 cubic feet per second peak flows. I would have predicted about 150 cfs hundred year flowrates.  These pictures are from a helicopter flyover this morning. (I did not ride this time) I'll be heading up again tomorrow to see what I can from the ground. I'm glad I didn't waste any money washing my truck from yesterday's trip."

[There are 369 comments. Since the ones presented were basically people tagging other people, I did not dig through the post's comments. Fortunately, there were some meaningful comments on some of the photos.

There was a wildfire last Summer. And it has been raining heavily for days. So they got the double whammy of no vegetation to fight erosion and lots of rain. As Stuart commented above, they got over 10 times the design flood.]

Colter M Hess shared

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Gloria Gallegos: When this road was build they had put certain restrictions on how they could build it without them getting in to blasting big boulders or removing any vegetation! It needed to be as natural as possible! They never though of the future problems! Now they can’t find a way to fix it because of the restrictions!

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[A comment said that it continues to rain every day. That would explain other comments about concern for the worker's safety.]
Julie Coy: You can see that part of the roadbed itself has bees broken off this time, with rebar exposed. And if you look at the photos of the same section from the side it looks like part of the roadbed had dropped down about a foot. You can’t just drive the dozer over that section of highway and remove the rock and mud like they have been able to do in the past. This is gonna take some major repair.
Edwin Thompson: Julie Coy actually, that is post tension cable. It was laid criss cross then concrete poured over. When the concrete is cured, they pull the cables to 33,000 psi, cap them, cut the rat tale off and seal them in. All of that concrete is now destoyed. A major rebuild taking months will be required. And, that is assuming the mountain stops sliding down so they can. In my opinion they may get just one lane open to 2-way traffic. And a year to fix the other.

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Jim Harris: This spot is just west of Grizzly Creek

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Michael Wilde: No amount of engineering could offset the amount of debris that is coming/will come down from the burn scar... that culvert was more than adequate when vegetation existed in the drainage above.

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Wagon Gulch

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[I recognize that as the dam for the Shoshone Hydroelectric Facility. At least in this case the road is an access road and not part of I-70.]

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This is the Hanging Lake Tunnel complex. Cinnamon Creek runs over the top of it.

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Jacob Shafer: Just wait until next years high water, the highway will be buried.
Joe Farrell: Looks like there is a lot of undermining going on at this point. That water is stripping everything away from the support for the roadway.
Karla Truxell Schritter: After the first huge debris deposit here a couple weeks ago they had heavy equipment in the alluvial fan to create a channel for the water to flow through the center of the riverbed, but continuing storms have washed more rock and mud down the gulch 2 or 3 more times since then, completely undoing that effort.
Mindy Brugman: Karla Truxell Schritter just west of our town a few years ago a big loader was trying to clear debris on the highway and a relatively small debris event came down pushed him off the highway into the nearby lake and he drowned they didn't even pull up the machine as far as I know. It's a very dangerous thing to try to keep these roads cleared and it's very difficult to engineer something to survive such debris torrents and floods. But they do. I like the idea of having some kind of a road sign when there's intense rain falling upstream from an area that the highway is threatened by. And it would just tell people to stop or to not go. I'm not sure if people would listen or we could get the warning there in time but if it's a link to a weather radar we should be able to say how intense the event is. But then of course there could be another event more intense near the radar that's blocking the signal. But there are many ways to check that there's an event going on. I think a forecaster assigned to such things could help more than just automating such warning signs. We do it for avalanches I don't know why we couldn't do it for debris torrents usually just a few hours or a few tens of minutes really.
[There are quite a few comments about the "debris fan" shoving the river up against the highway and eroding the foundation.
Note the rail in the lower-left corner. Since that debris flowed over the tracks, there is probably a railroad outage there. (Later, I saw the tracks were clear here. But UP had problems in other areas.)]

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Wagon Gulch - AKA Flamingo Gulch
[There are quite a few comments about the flamingos.]

Stuart Gardner commented on photo 9
I loved those flamingoes.
[They are plastic.]

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Steve Slagter: Better perspective on the depth of the fan coming from Devils Hole... that is a bunch of material,
[I can't imagine how the tracks escaped damage here. Some comments indicate the track is covered by rock slides in other areas.]

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This is the railroad on the other side of the river from the interstate. You can see the tracks on the right.
Julie Krelovich Snyder: Looks like they are going to stop construction between Gunnison and Montrose so that traffic can go that way, also.

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Union Pacific Railroad posted four photos with the comment: "If it’s not fire, it’s floods! A shout out to our crews digging our tracks out from under mudslides in Colorado’s Glenwood Canyon."

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Bruce B. Reynolds: The slide fence being demonstrated.

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The July 31, 2021 closure reported by Stuart Gardner must have been at least the third I-170 closure this Summer due to mudslides because this second one happened June 27, 2021, between exists 87 and 133.

CDOT via ColoradoSun-0626
"The highway was closed in both directions between the West Rifle and Dotsero exits after muddy debris covered an area in Glenwood Canyon more than 80 feet wide and 5 feet deep, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation."
[CDOT cleaned this one up in 2 days. [ColoradoSun-0628]]

CDOT via ColoradoSun-0626
Mud as deep as 10 feet covered Interstate 70 in Glenwood Canyon on June 26, 2021. The debris flowed during heavy rains over the Grizzly Creek burn scar. (CDOT)
The [weather] service said radar indicated heavy rains over the Grizzly Creek burn area, with as much as 1-inch of rain in an hour.

USGS via ColoradoSun-0626
The U.S. Geological Survey created this landslide hazard map following the Grizzly Creek Fire. The map notes several areas above Interstate 70 near the Grizzly Creek and No Name exits where the likelihood of debris flow following a big rain was 60% to 80%.

It made the news in Florida.

Unacknowledged via FloridaNewsTimes
Glenwood Springs, Colorado-More than 100 people, including nearly 30 people evacuated to tunnels, had to spend the night on the highway after rain caused another landslide in a wildfire-burned area of ​​western Colorado.
[They do close I-70 if flash floods are predicted. They did predict the first storm cell. But they missed the second one.]

This was one one of the mudslides that happened before the late July big ones.

Screenshot

"I-70 West through Glenwood Canyon has been shut down at least eight days since May 1 due to mudslides." [KDVR, Jul 6, 2021] And there has been a lot more closed days since this report.

CDOT via ColoradorSun-0801
Interstate 70 through Glenwood Canyon will remain closed for the foreseeable future after Colorado Department of Transportation employees surveyed damage from recent mud and rock slides and found damage “unlike anything they had seen before.”

Screenshot, Aug 02, 2021
[They received twice the normal amount of rain for July in 5 days and more rain is expected. They are now talking weeks to reopen and requesting Federal disaster relief.]

Jared Polis, the governor via CBSlocal
“It’s diverting up against the highway in some areas causing more damage. Or against the other side of the river where it could eventually erode the railway,” said Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety Stan Hilkey.

The thin brown rods are rebar. The bigger, silver bars are post tensioning tendons. That means the entire slab is going to have to be removed and rebuilt. At least they can do two-way traffic on the lower road while they repair the upper road.

Jared Polis, the governor via CBSlocal
When the road is able to reopen it will likely be one-lane of traffic in each direction. Polis said he expects a fully operation interstate by the winter. “What’s really important is to get it fixed before ski season. There’s more alternatives in summer for safer travel and scenery. It’s absolutely critical to be fully functioning by ski season,” Polis said.
Drivers are being detoured up to Steamboat Springs, and truck drivers are urged to take Interstate 80 through Wyoming.
They are cancelling scheduled work on other roads in Colorado.

One mudslide broke through a retaining wall. The weather man predicts 3 to 4 inches of more rain in the next few days.

At least the monsoons should help Lake Mead recover. It has been at record lows.

USlakes

New Cumberland Locks and Dam on Ohio River at Stratton, OH

(Satellite)

USACE-mission
"Across the river and two miles downstream lies New Cumberland, W.Va., the originally planned site of the lock and dam, and hence its namesake....The New Cumberland navigation project was constructed from 1955 to 1961, with the locks opening for traffic in November 1959. This facility eliminated the original Locks and Dams 7, 8 and 9 which were constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1904-1914. The three replaced projects each contained a single lock and the old-style wooden wicket dam."

David Gulden posted

LaurelHollowPark
First of the Army Corps of Engineers' Ohio River "super-dams" to go into operation is the $13.5-million New Cumberland Dam at Stratton, Ohio. The 1,315-foot long structure was built by Dravo Corp., Pittsburgh. The new high-lift dame raises upper pool level 15 feet.

USACE-whoops
Dec 13, 2016: They shutdown the main lock when they noticed a sheen in the main lock. The sheen was caused by a failure in the hydraulic system that operates the gates and valves. The aux lock had been put out of service for a couple of years because of structural issues that prevent its safe operation.
(Note that the upper gates of the aux lock are not closed. They can't close them and that is why that lock is shutdown. [triblive-dec15])

The "structural issues" for the aux lock concerns the upstream miter gates, not the lock's concrete. [WeirtonDailyTimes] But they waited until 2019 before they contracted for replacement gates. [govtribe]

Charlie Mason posted
The long gone Toronto Ohio Plant from the New Cumberland Locks and Dam. (Ohio River) mid 80’s

PittsburghCorps Flickr
New Cumberland Locks and Dam Lockmaster Willy Maynard speaks to Tribune Review Tom Fontaine about the gate hoist mechanism above the facility.

"Welders cut and capped faulty hydraulic lines that leaked 150 gallons of hydraulic fluid into the main chamber. To open and close gates at one of the locks, Maynard said, workers will use a 53-foot work boat to push and pull the gates, which stand about five stories tall. The complicated process figures to make it take at least twice as long for boats to get through the lock — from one hour, on average, to up to 2 1⁄2 hours. The lock, normally open around the clock, will be open only during daylight hours." The plan for a permanent fix is to replace the existing hydraulic system "with four self-contained hydraulic units that would sit on top of walls at the facility. The current system includes underwater lines buried in the sand, making repairs more difficult and increasing the risk for environmental contamination. The new system would cost about $2 million. Army Corps spokesman Jeff Hawk said officials plan to submit a request for emergency funding to cover the cost. Maynard said it could take six months to a year to secure the money."  [triblive-dec15]

The failure occurred Dec 12, 2016, and the lock was reopened Dec 17, an outage of 5 days. They have fine tuned their procedure for using the 53' work boat so that lock time is extended by only 15 to 30 minutes. The outage delayed 11 tows. [triblive-dec17]

I looked through quite a bit of a Google search output trying to find when the permanent repairs were done. But I couldn't find any more info on the repairs.

The middle gates are obviously submersible tainter gates. Even though the other gates look like the sluice gates used in the Emsworth Dam, they are evidently just another design for regular (non-submersible) tainter gates. [spillway-design]

Chuck Smith, Sep 2016

Tom Miller posted two photos with the comment: "View of New Cumberland locks and dam from WH Sammis in Stratton, Ohio."

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Jared Evan McClellan posted
15 loads N/B Double Newcumberland  lock and dam MV MARNE B— with Margaret McClellan at New Cumberland Locks and Dam.

Steven Foret commented on Jared's post
Right behind you good buddy

The first lock in this time-lapse video is this lock.

We Work the Waterways posted two photos with the comment:

New Cumberland Lock main chamber pintle ball miter gate repairs are in full swing. This is at Mile 54 on the Ohio River in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District. 

While repairs are underway tows have to lock in the auxiliary or small chamber. The main chamber is 1200 feet long by 110 feet wide. However, the small chamber is only 600 feet long by 110’ wide. 

This means the tow has to be double locked. Here we see the M/V TENNESSEE from Amherst Madison in the process of doing just that while a heavy lift crane is removing one of the huge miter gates. Each gate is 35 feet tall, 61 feet wide and weighs 235,000 pounds or 118 tons. 

Courtesy of Capt Jim Smiley (Capted Smiley).

Stephen Porter: This is the Medium Capacity Fleet (MCF), home ported at the Pittsburgh Repair Station. The SHREVE heavy lift crane has the miter gate on the hook. Coincidentally, the MCF’s workboat is also the TENNESSEE. MCF will begin work at Pike Island L/D in a few weeks and the SHREVE will be at Pickwick L/D in July.

[To put this hardship in perspective, almost all of the locks on the Mississippi River are just 600' and require double locking.]

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Capted Smiley commented on the above post

Historic Fort Steuben posted

🌊 From Frontier Waters to Engineered Power: The Transformation of New Cumberland ⚙️

1785 – A Wild Frontier 🌲

The Ohio River near today’s Stratton, Ohio and New Cumberland was free-flowing and unpredictable. Spring floods overflowed the banks, while late summer droughts exposed sandbars. There were no locks or dams—only canoes, flatboats, and a rugged frontier landscape.

1904–1914 – The First Locks and Dams 🏗️

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built Locks and Dams 7, 8, and 9 to improve navigation. These sites used wooden wicket dams and single lock chambers—advanced for their time but labor-intensive and limited in capacity.

1955–1961 – Modernization Begins 🚧

As river traffic increased, the old system became outdated. The Corps replaced the three aging sites with one modern facility—the New Cumberland project. The new gated dam and larger locks opened in 1959 and were completed in 1961.

Today – A Reliable River System 🚢

The modern system maintains a consistent nine-foot navigation channel, supporting industry, commerce, and recreation. What was once a wild frontier river is now a carefully managed transportation corridor.

Adam Bowman commented on the above post
Another view as of 02/13/26

Historic Fort Steuben posted

🚢 Taming the River: The Story Behind New Cumberland Locks and Dam

In the early 1900s, the Ohio River was unpredictable—flooding in the spring and running too shallow in the summer. Barges carrying coal, steel, and grain often stalled, slowing industry from Pittsburgh downstream.

By the 1950s, America needed a dependable river highway. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers replaced several small, outdated locks with a modern system at Stratton, Ohio, creating what we now know as the New Cumberland Locks and Dam.

🌊 Key Facts:

- It is the fourth lock and dam on the Ohio River downstream from Pittsburgh, located at approximately mile 54.

- The facility has two lock chambers: a 1,200 ft commercial lock for barge tows and a 600 ft auxiliary lock for smaller boats and recreational traffic.

- Construction began in 1955, and the locks opened around 1961, replacing older locks and wicket-style dams.

- The dam maintains a steady 9-foot navigation channel, ensuring commerce moves efficiently year-round.

- Built for one simple reason: to tame the river just enough to keep commerce moving year-round.

Image Taken By: SHS Aerospace Engineering & Aviation Program

Roy Gryskevich commented on the above post
From the WV side.

in 2018, some of 27 Barges Allided with 1922 Emsworth Locks & Dams on Ohio River

Main Channel: (Satellite)

Back Channel: (Satellite)

Update: Apr 12, 2024: 26 barges broke loose. 9 of them allided with this dam while 6 passed on through.

USACE via Dennis DeBruler

USACE
"This facility stands at the head of the Ohio River navigation system and forms a 24-mile pool on the three rivers around the city of Pittsburgh." It was built between 1919-22 and replaced three wicket dams that were built between 1877-1915. It was rebuilt as a gated structure between 1935-38. 

Judging by the scale on a satellite image, the main lock is 600' x 110' and the auxiliary lock is 200' x 5?'. During the summer months there are almost as many lockages for pleasure craft as there is for commercial traffic. So the smaller auxiliary lock makes sense.

1 of 5 photos posted by USACE Pittsburgh District

The Ohio River Flood of 1937 - A Historic Challenge 🏗️

This week in history, we remember the devastating Ohio River flood of 1937, a monumental event that tested the resilience of countless communities. From Pittsburgh to Cairo, Illinois, the flood left 385 people dead, a million homeless, and caused $500 million in damages ($10.2 billion in today's value).

Starting in early January, the rain fell relentlessly, leading to unprecedented water levels across Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Cities like Huntington, West Virginia, witnessed the river cresting at 69.45 feet, 19 feet above flood stage. In Cincinnati, the river peaked at 80 feet, the highest in its history, and Louisville saw 70 percent of the city submerged.

Amidst the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, this disaster strained federal and state resources. However, it led to a united response and significant developments in flood control. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers played a crucial role, dispatching fleets for rescue and relief, and later, developing over seventy storage reservoirs to reduce flood heights.

As we reflect on this significant chapter in our history, we remember the resilience of the affected communities and the importance of preparedness and infrastructure to withstand nature's force. Our commitment to protect and serve our communities stands stronger than ever. 

On Jan 13, 2018, 27 barges broke free and allided with the dam and two USACE workboats causing  $12.5m in damages. A record rainfall caused the river to rise 12' in a little over a day. And ice formations accumulated at the head of the barge fleet. Instead of the usual 600hp towboat used to attend the fleeting area, a 1,050 hp and a 1,800 hp towboat had been assigned to the area. But they were unable to adjust the mooring lines to accommodate the rising river and the steel-pile mooring cell gave way. The entire fleet started drifting downstream. Both towboats tried to stop the fleet, but the current was too strong. "The Pittsburgh area has a long history of barge breakaways caused by high water and ice buildups." The NTSB recommended more regulation and inspection of fleeting areas by the Coast Guard. But neither the Coast Guard or the USACE have the resources to inspect fleeting areas for structural integrity. [WaterwaysJournal-ntsb, paycount of 2/week] I could not find a link to the NTSB report itself. It sounds to me that what they really need is a mooring cell that holds a floating bollard.

U.S. Coast Guard Photo via WaterwaysJournal-ntsb

USACE via WaterwaysJournal-news
More than 60 barges broke loose on Jan 13, 2018. 37 of them were at another location. But 27 of them were upstream of this dam. All but two of those 27 barges were found by Jan 18. There was no significant damage to this facility and no environmental concerns from pollution.

US Coast Gaurd via WaterwaysJournal-news
Corps works to remove ice from Emsowrth Lock.

This is a photo of the original wicket dam and we see a wicket tender in action.

HistoricPittsburgh

It looks like this dam uses sluice gates instead of roller or Tainter gates.

bergmanpc
[They were going to use in-the-wet technologies to rehabilitate the dam. That was the technology that caused such a dramatic cost overrun for the Olmsted Dam. I wonder how it worked on this project.]

I've never seen a long apron like that on a USACE river dam. Since the work by Bergmann involved scour protection, I assume scouring was a known issue and that this apron was part of the original design to address that issue. But an extended scour protection solution was needed to avoid undermining the dam in case a gate breaks. [synthetex]

Stephanie Strasburg/Tribune-Review via TribLive
Also TribLive-repairs

The Olmsted Dam in-the-wet technology was building modules on the shore and then floating them into place. This sounds like they were actually pouring concrete under the water.

synthetex

They did build concrete armor units and drop them into place.

synthetex

bergmanpc

Look at the struts needed to hold the walls when there is no water pressure on the inside. They used 14 struts about 6' in diameter that were built with 1" steel.

Army Corps of Engineers gives tour of Emsworth Locks and Dams in advance of major rehabilitation project
"An auxiliary chamber at Emsworth will eventually be replaced by a chamber the size of the one being inspected as part of an estimated $2.1 billion Upper Ohio River Navigation Project at the Emsworth, Dashshields and Montgomery locks and dams....Lenna Hawkins, deputy district engineer for USACE Pittsburgh District, said they are getting close to about 30% of the design of the navigation project, which was authorized by the federal government in 2016."
[I wish I had more confidence in the USACE's judgement concerning construction projects.]

Another view of the sluice gates.

post-gazette, Emily Matthews
A primary lock chamber is being dewatered as part of the inspections and maintenance procedures of the Emsworth Locks and Dams' downstream lock draining closure system on Wed, Oct 14, 2020, in Emsworth.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District posted six photos with the comment:

🗺️ “It’s tough to make decisions around #Engineering and the Pittsburgh District without data from surveyors,” said John. “I love the boots-on-the-ground work. I get opportunities to see things most people don’t know exist. I get to feel and breathe our projects.”

💻  John has been with the district since August 2020, and with the #USACE since 2010. Bob has been with the district since 2014.

🧭 “I love my job. It’s a great gig. You can get a mix of field time and office time, which is what I’ve been striving for my whole career, which I love. I’m not stuck in either world. It’s nice being able to have the option to do research but also go out and conduct surveys. It involves problem-solving, and it’s a great job,” Bob said.

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[It looks like quite a few fill values need to be fixed.]

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And the Mar 2022 satellite image shows a previous dewatering with all of those wall braces.

Satellite

The smaller lock can handle only one barge at a time and it is creating a big "traffic jam."

Clayton Adams posted
It's become a river parking lot with single barge locking..both locks, 6 miles a part. We'll be tied off to the bridge before its all said and done..lol!!!
Heather Brown Hensch: Emsworth and Dashields locks below Pittsburgh. We're pulling cuts at Emsworth now.

2 of 11 photos posted by Fort Loudoun Lock with the comment: "A few recent pics from Emsworth Locks & Dam just a few short river miles downstream from Pittsburgh, PA. The very first L/D facility on the upper end of the Ohio River owned, operated, and maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District."

Cathy Selber: So much bigger than our dam! Very cool!

Fort Loudoun Lock: Cathy Selber You are correct that both lock chambers are much larger. However the dam is much smaller with a lower lift. Also, Emsworth has no hydropower plant whereas Fort Loudoun does have hydropower.

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Instagram drone video

0:26 timelapse video of barges being removed

UP Stalled a freight train in a tunnel (#25) near Newhall, CA, and blocked commuters

North Portal: (Satellite) 

South Portal: (Satellite, under that pile of bridges)

safe_image for Union Pacific freight train stuck in Newhall tunnel; passenger trains blocked
"The train originally started experiencing trouble at about 2:40 p.m.[July 30, 2021], Metrolink spokesman Paul Gonzales told KTLA. He said when the train entered the tunnel, the engine died and exhaust began filling the tunnel. Crew members from the train were transported to a local hospital after inhaling fumes from the train as a precaution, the Fire Department reported. They have since been released. The tracks were closed between Newhall and Sylmar/San Fernando, Metrolink said in a tweet....As of 9 p.m., Gonzales said the train is still in the tunnel and crews are working to get it removed."

The south portal is below this road.

Street View

The tunnel is 1.3 miles long and was purchased by the Los Angeles County in 1991 for its commuter rail system. After the Northridge Earthquake on Jan 17, 1974, LA tried to get the Feds to fund repair work by claiming that the earthquake caused the damage. They made that claim more than once. FEMA kept ruling that most of the damage already existed and they would not pay for those repairs. [fema]