COLORADO SPRINGS — Snow plows are still working to remove all of the snow from the first snow storm of 2022. The city of Colorado Springs said at the height of the storm there was 47 snowplows out.
“Our big mission was to widen the primary roads from curb to curb and put down material so when the sun did come out and we did get rising temperatures we would get a lot of reaction on those roadways,” City of Colorado Springs Operations & Maintenance Division Manager Corey Farkas said.
The city was met with challenges like the heavy snow coming in overnight, low temperatures, and staffing issues. Due to labor shortages, the city couldn’t send out all of their plows.
“We were missing nine operators throughout a 24 hour shift, that’s nine routes that aren’t being covered, that other operators have to cover to try and get cleared,” Farkas explained.
As of Thursday, the city is still on full-call out. Crews have the primary and secondary roads passable, their shifting their focus to the neighborhoods.
Ten trucks started working into neighborhoods Thursday morning and will continue into next week. City plows don’t go into neighborhoods until there is six inches or more of snow on the roads.
The low temperatures affected how well the treatment on the roads reacted to the heavy snow.
“Our deicers don’t activate as quickly as they would during a warmer storm and so when we get down into single digits and it takes hours and hours for these chemicals to start activating, there’s not much we can do,” Farkas added.
Crews ask when there is a big snow event to please not park cars in the street. With warmer weather ahead, you will see more progress in the neighborhoods.
“We always say whenever mother nature wants to let everyone know that she is still here she wins, we cannot keep up with mother nature during a storm like this, it’s once she pulls out and the weather gets like this that’s when we can start making some progress on these roadways,” Farkas said.
If you’re curious as to what snow plow route your neighborhood is in the cities public works website has those details. You can look it up here.
