2 weeks Ago
Snow removal efforts are running at full capacity in Colorado Springs and El Paso County to handle the first major snowfall of the winter. Between 6 and 12 inches of snow have fallen across southern Colorado since Tuesday night, with Colorado Springs on the heavy end of the storm. Local governments are running full crews working 12-hour shifts through most of the week to clear the snowfall and get ahead of the next batch of snow.
Corey Farkas, Colorado Springs operations and maintenance division manager, said it took until 3 a.m. Wednesday for the city to clear roads faster than they were covered in snow.
"There were times last night when it was snowing at well over an inch an hour. At that point, we just try to keep one lane open at each of those primary roadways," Farkas said. The city and county are running a full-call shift to clear roads as quickly as possible.
Colorado Springs deployed a fleet of 50 snow removal trucks. El Paso County added an additional 30 to 35 trucks working the main roads as well as 20 blade operators to clear the county's gravel roads. The city and county public works offered Snow Schools in the fall to prepare their new drivers to operate the heavy plows.
Crews began preparing the plows and road treatments earlier this week when the storm forecast became more likely. The county website includes an active winter weather event dashboard to show the real-time work being done to clear the roads. The dashboard shows that trucks had cleared more than 2,000 miles of high priority roadways by early Wednesday afternoon.
That work covers about half of the 4,400 lane miles Highway Division Manager Tim Stickel tracks throughout the county. Stickel said the plows focused on the busiest roads through the morning and began expanding to the secondary priority connector roads by late Wednesday morning. "There's been a few bad wind blows but so far, we're consistent in moving on and not having to re-hit areas where the snow moves back in on them," Stickel said.
Colorado Springs caught a break Wednesday afternoon before the next phase of the storm. The National Weather Service has a winter storm watch beginning at 11 p.m.
for Colorado Springs and the majority of the county, calling for potentially 4 to 6 more inches of snow by the end of Thursday. Other sections of the county are under heavier storm watches until Friday night. The National Weather Service advisories forecast up to 8 inches of snow in the northern part of El Paso County and between 6 and 15 inches of snow in the mountains around Pikes Peak and Woodland Park.
Colorado Springs does not use de-icer to treat roads before snowfall because the city doesn't have the space to store the tens of thousands of gallons needed. Colorado Department of Transportation uses a liquid anti-icer to help prepare highways before winter storms and a de-icer to clear ice as it forms. That is in the process of changing.
Farkas said the Public Works department finished an 80,000-gallon storage facility last year on the north side of the city. A similar facility is in the works on the south side, with the goal to open by the end of 2025. "That would let us get out there and run the bridges and hills, the known trouble spots, and pre-treat them," Farkas said.
City and county crews warn drivers to avoid driving close behind snowplows or attempting to pass them while they're working to clear streets..
