DENVER (KDVR) — The City of Denver says it’s on high alert because of concentrated amounts of snow in the forecast.

Those concentrations can dump a large amount of snow in short periods of time.

With just hours before heavy snow is expected in the Denver metro, crews were making sure plows are ready to go. FOX31 was told large plows will work on main streets and smaller plows will focus on neighborhood side streets.

“So when we get a significant accumulation, they will take that top layer of snow off and they will create a path to the main street and prevent deep ice ruts,” Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Communications Director Nancy Kuhn said.

Small plows will make at least one pass on streets in front of homes. Denver does not use deicer in residential areas, which has drawn a lot of criticism from the last storm. The crews will work around the clock and perhaps for several days.

Gil Ortega, who lives in Ruby Hill, said they’d better because vehicles driving in the area have trouble stopping.

“In this area, you can try to cross a street and if they can’t stop, they are going to hit,” Ortega said.

Ortega says some Ruby Hill streets are still packed with snow that fell at the end of December. He said cars go slipping and sliding when the snow comes around.

“They took out that stop sign. I don’t know how many times. And the way the drive on this street, it’s unreal,” Ortega added.

Back in December, the city said it did not send out plows in full force because the forecast did not predict so much heavy wet snow would fall.

“In that storm, the forecast changed. We got a lot more snow.  It was also a very unusual spring-like storm in the coldest time of the year,” Kuhn added.  

The city says it’s ready this time.