Ice removal keeps crews busy in Colorado Springs

Most of the snow from the last winter storm has melted, only to freeze into thick ice that creates dangerous conditions on some Colorado Springs streets.

The city has four crews focusing on ice removal, mostly on neighborhood streets that were not plowed and get little heat radiation from the sun.

“Hopefully, we can mitigate the problem,” Jack Ladley, operations manager of the city’s Streets Division. “We’re not going to do away with the problem completely this winter, but hopefully (we’ll) mitigate it.”

A hilly street with a particularly heavy layer of ice is Villegreen Street at the intersection of Broadmoor Bluffs Drive, on the city’s southwest side.

Crews use heavy equipment — a grader, a front end loader and dump trucks — to scrape off break up the ice to be hauled away. Ice covers even sidewalk corners and driveway entrances.

The scraping noise is reminiscent of fingernails scraping a blackboard but neighbor Cheryl Garlock doesn’t mind.

“Whatever it takes to get rid of the ice, we’ll take it,” she said. “It’s a problem every winter but especially this winter.”

Garlock said poor drainage from a spring of water at the top of the hill contributes to the ice buildup.

Ladley said some ice can be treated simply with salt or sand, but the ice on Villegreen requires heavy equipment for removal.