COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Colorado Springs Public Works said their snow operations team is fully staffed and equipped to plow the roads after Friday morning's snow storm. The amount of snow that piled up in some neighborhoods over Thursday night took them by surprise.
Corey Farkas is the Public Works Operations And Maintenance Division Manager for the City of Colorado Springs. He said the city is responsible for plowing roads like Rockrimmon Boulevard on the northwest side of town.
Rockrimmon is what's referred to by public works as a secondary road. These roads are not plowed until busier ones like Academy Boulevard, Woodman Road and Union Boulevard are cleared. Neighborhood and residential streets usually aren't plowed at all.
“Mainly the northern reaches of the city got a lot more snow than expected,” Farkas said.
Initially anticipating only a couple inches of snow around midnight, public works issued a full call out for all of their snow plow drivers.
“Low and behold we had a full call out going out at midnight last night,” Farkas said.
He said snow plow drivers work in 12 hour increments.
“There is anywhere from 90 to 100 personnel in a 24 shift,” Farkas said.
Public works said snow operations are fully staffed with nearly 40 to 50 plow drivers on the roads during a storm.
“With over 206 square miles within the city, over 6,400 lane miles of roadway, and you take 50 trucks and sprinkle them out there on our primary (roads). That's a lot of work, right, to keep up with,” Farkas said.
Because of this, the city has a plowing policy. According to Farkas, snow plows can only clear residential streets if there is more than six inches of snow. He said their priority is plowing major streets that are most traveled on.
With the snow plows clearing the roads, it's up to homeowners to shovel or snow blow their own driveways.
“I saw something falling down from the sky, I opened the blinds and saw two to three inches of snow on the ground,” Adin Hinderson said.
Hinderson is a 5th grader in Colorado Springs. On Friday morning, Hinderson and his younger brother Nico laced up their snow boots and began building a snowman.
“My favorite part about making the snowman is probably making the balls,” Hinderson said.
He said the process is easy because the snow was heavy and sticky.
“I just gather all the snow and make it into a small ball and I just put it anywhere and just keep rolling it until I get it as big as I want ,” Hinderson said.
The Hinderson brothers got creative and used anything they could find in their yard or kitchen. They used rocks for the eyes, marshmallow roasting sticks for the arms, and of course, a carrot for the nose.
“It's perfect,” Hinderson said.
Public works said for this snow storm, it will be another day or two before the roads are all cleaned up and they can return back to their normal operations.
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