Just before 3pm Sunday 12/29/24 Custer County received 911 calls regarding a rock slide at the intersection of Highway 96 and Highway 165.
Responders determined there was a continued high risk of additional rock slides and closed the highway.
January 2 update from the Custer County Sheriff’s Department:
Langston’s had made tremendous progress in clearing the rock slide at H96 and Mackenzie Junction.
We met with Mike Langston this morning. So far he’s filled 288 trailers with roughly 25 tons of debris per trailer. So over 7,200 tons of rock moved so far.
It takes about a minute for two loaders to fill one trailer
-photos shared on the Custer County Sheriff’s Department Facebook Page
January 6 update from the Custer County Sherrif’s Department: Hwy 96 reopens!
Final Close Out Mackenzie Junction Rockslide.
We wanted to share the final stats for the rockslide cleanup. CDOT is planning additional rock fall mitigation measures at this site at a future time. CDOT will coordinate with the county regarding impacts to highway traffic when this occurs.
Langston Concrete performed the debris removal. They moved 678 truck loads of approximately 25 tons of debris per truck. They moved a total of 16,950 tons in just 3.5 days.
During some time periods they were sending a loaded truck down the hill every two minutes.
You can hear an interesting interview with local geologist Jay Temple about the geology and circumstances that led to this rock slide.
This interview was by Gary Taylor as part of the weekly KLZR Radio Valley Views.