Road crews prep for blizzard in El Paso County

As the sun shined Tuesday afternoon, people were out and about enjoying the weather but, by this time Wednesday, it could be a completely different story as one of the biggest snowstorms of the year rolls in.

Jack Ladley, Operations Manager with the City of Colorado Springs said, “if not the biggest in terms of snowfall, certainly the biggest in terms of potential impact.”

By the end of the day, Ladley says the plows will be hooked up and ready to go.

“We will have by the end of business today a full hookup, that means that all of our snow and ice equipment is hooked up. In this event, we are also going to hook up a front end loader mount and snow blower just in case we get drifted in,” said Ladley.

During the storm crews will be working 12-hour shifts 24 hours a day until the storm is over, Ladley says it will be a full crew. “80 people, 40 per shift out on the roads trying to open them up.”

And it’s not just the city of Colorado Springs, CDOT is also more than prepared. Michelle Peulen, Communications Manager for Region 2, said they will be running 20 trucks on and 20 trucks off in El Paso County.

“We will have plow drivers on call 12 hours, off 12 hours and that will continue throughout the storm which is expected to go into Thursday,” said Peulen.

And due to the incoming rain, CDOT says they will not be prepping any roads before the storm, however, the city still will.