Local road, street crews grade themselves on Sunday’s storm response

Road and street crews in the Colorado Springs area would be the first to admit they’re not perfect but they gave themselves high grades for their response to Sunday’s winter storm.
The 24-hour event dropped as much as 10 inches of snow in some areas, causing several vehicle slide-offs and a major traffic jam on U.S. 24 in Ute Pass, just west of Manitou Springs.

“I think we got a solid B or B-plus,” said Brad Bauer, a supervisor with the Colorado Department of Transportation. “What keeps us from getting an A is Mother Nature just gets us sometimes, and we just can’t keep up.”

Troy Wiitala, a supervisor with the El Paso County Department of Transportation, gave his crews an A grade.

“We’re always going to have snowpack and accumulation,” he said. “We’re not going to keep an entire road bare during a storm. Our guys did a good job keeping up with it.”

Colorado Springs crews earned a grade of 10 from supervisor Terry Huggins.

“They just keep going,” he said. “They get out there, do the best they can and try to keep everything open.”

Technology helps. CDOT uses a sonar device, mounted on the back of a pickup truck, to provide exact readings on the amount of ice and snow on pavement.

“It helps us to know exactly how much salt or sand to apply, so that we don’t waste them and we use them when they’ll work best,” said Eric Meyers, a CDOT supervisor.

CDOT also pretreated Interstate 25 earlier in the week with salt brine, a less expensive supplement to the more commonly used magnesium chloride.

“We spray it in the center lane in each direction from Monument to the racetrack,” Bauer said.

El Paso County plans to begin using salt brine later in the season. Colorado Springs has no plans yet to use it.

Supervisors said much of the snow melted because the ground remains relatively warm.

“It hasn’t been cold enough for long enough yet,” Huggins said. “If we’d have gotten this storm a month or two later, it would have been a different story.”

Several drivers said they agree with supervisors’ assessment of the crews’ performance.

“I think they do a great job because you never know what the roads are going to be like,” said Edward Merrow.

“The entrance ramp onto U.S. 24 from Manitou Springs was a little iffy but the highway was fine,” said Angel Migues.

“I’ve been on the East Coast and they can’t handle snow as the crews here do,” said Ted Vickers.