Mud-slicing on muddy county roads? El Paso county explains the procedure

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- Officials said that they can use heavy equipment to slice off, or peel off, mud on unpaved gravel roads in. rural areas.

Mud-slicing?

Jack Ladley, the county's deputy director of public works, recently explained the procedure when responding to complaints of muddy roads after melting snow from November storms left some residents in the Truckton area unable to get out of their driveways.

"We can peel that mud off, lay wind rows laid in the ditches, let it dry out, then come and pull that back onto the roadway at a future date," he said. "But when you're talking 2,500 lane miles of roadway, I can't do that on every road. So, in a lot of cases, it's it's a matter of (letting) Mother Nature get this dried out."

Ladley said that the mud usually is between six and ten inches deep; and crews use road graders to remove it.

"(Mud-slicing) is not real efficient," he continued. "It's not something that we enjoy doing. There are occasions where we have to do it, where a road will get just (so) doggone muddy that we have to peel it off. After that, you can get down to dry material."

According to Ladley, some rural areas received between 20 and 24 inches of snow; many driveways were as muddy and impassible as the roads they connect to.