Many Colorado Springs streets snow-packed, icy but passable Monday morning

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- The most slippery driving on a bitterly cold Monday morning may have been in the foothills west of Interstate 25, a city public works official said.

According to Lance Holmes, a public works supervisor, most of the city's snow-packed and icy streets were on the west side of town.

However, there's not much snow to plow, as very little fell during a weekend in which temperatures plunged to around zero.

"We're only on a partial call-out," Holmes explained. 'We have some salt and sand trucks spread out, treating icy areas to provide better traction. We won't see any melting until we get through this cold spell later in the week."

KRDO 13's The Road Warrior drove around the Broadmoor Bluffs and other areas of the foothills, finding no drivers skidding or sliding.

Downtown streets were fairly clear, and Interstate 25 through the city was free of ice and snow.

On Highway 115 south of town, one lane in each direction was clear while the rest of the pavement had a light cover of snow and ice.

Some schools and businesses were closed because of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday Monday, which reduced the amount of traffic.

A factor in the relatively good driving conditions was the pre-treatment of streets and roads by area public works crews last Thursday and Friday during warmer, drier conditions.

Pueblo -- which normally is slightly warmer than Colorado Springs but is also experiencing sub-zero temperatures -- sprayed magnesium chloride on bridges and major streets.

The chemical has long been considered the best material to use across the country in reducing ice and snow buildup on pavement, but is expensive and has been criticized for being environmentally harsh.

"It's kind of got a 12-hour window that you want to hit before the storm, so you don't want to pre-treat any earlier than 12 hours," said Charles Roy, Pueblo's deputy director of public works. And ideally, you want to (apply it) an hour or two before the storm. So, that still dries but it doesn't get washed away with, time rain and other things like that. But it's not as affective in temperatures lower than -5."

Colorado Springs has used magnesium chloride in the past but decided against using it for pre-treatment before the current cold wave.

Corey Rivera, a city public works supervisor, explained why during a news conference Friday.

"The liquid chemical draws moisture. It's attracted to moisture. And so, if we pre-treated the roadways, it would have drawn that moisture faster into that roadway, and it's actually going to cause more of a black ice."

Rivera said that the city was on a partial call-out overnight Sunday and during the day Monday, and that crews would spread a sandy anti-skid material on slick spots.

Another chemical alternative is a product called "Ice Slicer" that Roy said is effective at temperatures down to -25 when used after a storm to reduce freezing.

"You'll actually hear it pop," he said. "It just breaks apart that ice and produces that brine solution that you're kind of talking about. It helps things melt faster. We've experimented with it here in Pueblo. It's about three times the cost of a normal de-icer kind of thing. So, it's a specialty solution. We have a little bit leftover from a couple of years past, but it doesn't have a great shelf life."

Colorado Springs also decided not to use that product for pre-treatment.

In recent years, more agencies and municipalities -- such as El Paso County and the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) -- have switched to salt brine, a 33% concentration of salt water.

It's considered less expensive because crews can make it themselves, is believed to be more environmentally friendly and is designed to prevent ice and snow from bonding to the pavement, so that plowing is easier and more efficient.

But it has limitations in sub-zero weather.

"It starts getting not as efficient around, you know, ten degrees," said Amber Shipley, a CDOT spokesperson. "And as we get into those negatives, it does not work as well because it causes a slushy mixture."

Tim Stickel, El Paso County's highway manager, said that salt brine is most effective above 15 degrees.

"We'll have some windows when it's going to be less effective," he admitted. "Economically you can't beat it for the cost and everything in the application. It's relatively easy to get, easy to produce. So, it's economical for all our taxpayers out there."