UPDATE: Sinkhole closes Highway 24 near Leadville

FRIDAY UPDATE:  The giant sinkhole that has indefinitely closed less than a mile of U.S. 24 Monday is growing.

"It's crumbling before our eyes," Colorado Department of Transportation spokeswoman Ashley Mohr said Thursday.

Once confined to the road's shoulder, the sinkhole has now hit the highway. "It's literally crumbling into the black abyss," she said.

CDOT completed soil samples on the 100-foot-deep sinkhole. How — and when — the hole will be filled and the road repaired is still in the preliminary planning stages.

"It's a fine line we're trying to walk between inconveniencing folks, but also keeping them safe," Mohr said.

TUESDAY UPDATE: A sinkhole that closed a stretch of U.S. 24 north of Leadville on Monday has been determined to be a century-old railroad tunnel that collapsed decades ago and was exposed when the soil thawed.

It is estimated to be 100 feet deep.

Stacey Stegman, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation, said the sinkhole was along the Denver and Rio Grande Railway over the Tennessee Pass near Leadville.

"It seems that it was constructed as part of the Royal Gorge (Railroad) route in 1880," Stegman said.

Local businesses are open, the Vail Daily reports.

Highway 24 at mile marker 165 south of Red Cliff was closed in both directions by CDOT because of concerns that the sinkhole might expand.

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On Monday:
LEADVILLE — One lane is open after one of the main highways to Leadville had to be closed after the road washed out following heavy rains.

The heavy rains also caused a mudslide that delayed traffic in northern Colorado.

The Colorado Department of Transportation closed U.S. 24 near Tennessee Pass on Monday after the washout and several hours later managed to get one lane open.

Meanwhile, a highway near the High Park burn area in northern Colorado has reopened after the third mudslide in as many days.

Colorado Highway 14 in Poudre Canyon was closed for about three hours Monday morning because of a slide was five feet high and 200 feet wide.

Road crews had strategically stationed front-end loaders in the canyon because of recent rain in the area.