Colorado Springs, county deploys road crews to clear snow the rest of the week | Weather

Snow removal operations are running at full capacity in Colorado Springs and El Paso County to handle the first major snowfall of the winter.

Between 6 and 12 inches of snow has fallen across southern Colorado since Tuesday night, with Colorado Springs on the brunt of the storm. Local authorities are running full crews working 12-hour shifts throughout most of the week to clear the snowfall and get ahead of the next batch of snow.

Corey Farkas, chief of operations and maintenance in Colorado Springs, said it took until 6 p.m. 3 Wednesday for the city to clear the roads faster than they were covered in snow.

“There were times last night where it was snowing well over an inch an hour. At that point, we’re just trying to keep one lane open on each of the primary lanes,” Farkas said.

The city and county are running a full call shift to clear roads as quickly as possible. Colorado Springs deployed a fleet of 50 snow removal trucks. El Paso County added another 30 to 35 trucks working on the main roads, as well as 20 wing operators to clear the county’s dirt roads.

City and county public works offered snow schools in the fall to prepare their new drivers to operate the heavy plows. Crews began preparing plows and road treatments earlier this week as the storm outlook became more likely.

The county website contains a active dashboard for winter weather events to show the real-time work being done to clear the roads. The dashboard shows trucks had cleared more than 2,000 miles of high-priority roads by early Wednesday afternoon.

That work covers about half of the 4,400 lane miles Highway Division Manager Tim Stickel tracks throughout the county. Stickel said the plows focused on the busiest roads through the morning and began expanding to the secondary priority connecting roads late Wednesday morning.

“There’s been a couple bad gusts, but so far we’re consistent in moving forward and not having to hit areas again where the snow is moving back on them,” Stickel said.

Colorado Springs took a break Wednesday afternoon before the next phase of the storm. The National Weather Service has a winter storm watch beginning at 11 p.m. for Colorado Springs and most of the county, potentially calling for 4 to 6 more inches of snow by the end of Thursday.

Other parts of the county are under stronger storm watches until Friday evening. The National Weather Service advisory predicts up to 8 inches of snow in northern El Paso County and between 6 and 15 inches of snow in the mountains around Pikes Peak and Woodland Park.

Colorado Springs doesn’t use deicing to treat roads before snowfall because the city doesn’t have the space to store the tens of thousands of gallons needed. The Colorado Department of Transportation uses a liquid anti-icer to prepare highways before winter storms and a deicer to clear ice when it forms.

That is about to change. Farkas said the Public Works department completed an 80,000-gallon storage facility last year on the north side of town. A similar facility is in the works on the south side with the goal of opening by the end of 2025.

“It would let us get out there and drive the bridges and the hills, the known problems, and pretreat them,” Farkas said.

City and county crews are warning motorists to avoid driving closely behind snowplows or trying to pass them while they work to clear streets.