Review of snow response

The first snow of the season that hit parts of Southern Colorado will soon be a memory. Now comes the assessment of how city streets crews and a private crew did to handle it in Colorado Springs.

Bard Lower is the Operations Manger of the Streets Division. He analyzed how his city workers did to clear the snow and ice from primary and secondary streets, “I think we did pretty well. It’s the first storm. We were ready, but little things happen. The main problem was that it’s so cold our deicers don’t work when it gets down to zero temps. They work pretty well at 10 degrees.”

Terracare is a privately contracted company that works out of the Denver area and was also part of the snow attack, for the company’s first time on city streets in northwest Colorado Springs. These crews were out in Grid One which is roughly from Nevada west and from Garden of the Gods, north. Lower assessed these crews tackling of the snow, “I would say they did reasonably well for their first try. It’s a learning experience. They were using ice slicer in some places as well. Ice Slicer doesn’t work well in the zero range of temps.”

A meeting will be held soon between the city and the private contractor to figure out what worked, what didn’t and strategy in the future. Lower said, “The next storm, it’s not that we weren’t ready, but we can do it better.”

Remember, Colorado Springs city crews only clear primary or secondary streets. They will only plow residential streets if there is six inches or more of snow on them.