DENVER — Nearly one week after a storm dropped several inches of snow in Denver and along the Front Range, several residential streets still are covered.
“They’re ridiculous. They’re really icy and I think it’s crazy that they don’t plow the side streets,” Denver resident Leni Plimpton said.
Denver Public Works said Monday afternoon that crews will drop de-icer on residential streets on Monday night and Tuesday in an attempt to get things back to normal.
Crews will also deploy 30 of its large plows and every side street will be addressed, Denver Public works said.
That combined with sunny and warmer weather this week should help melt the ice and snow in the coming days.
“This most recent snowstorm was particularly impactful due to snowfall amounts, snowfall rates and low temperatures and we’ve heard people’s concerns about the condition of our roadways,” said Eulois Cleckley, executive director of Denver Public Works.
“We hope this step of dropping deicer on the side streets shows our residents that we are listening and will take necessary actions to address their concerns.”
Denver Public Works spokeswoman Heather Burke said the trucks assigned to residential streets made one pass at the beginning of the storm on Tuesday.
“They made a single pass down the side streets. They don’t go to bare pavement. They don’t drop de-ice material,” Burke said.
Burke said the city has the right equipment to do side streets and “the residential plows did what they were intended to do.”
“They are still snow-covered and ice-covered,” Burke said. “The smaller plows are … only meant to take a single pass.”
Denver’s residential plow program was created a a big storm in late 2006 and early 2007 that was followed by several days of cold temperatures.
The goal of the program is to prevent deep ice rutting, but because it has taken so long for snow and ice to melt from the most recent storm, Denver Public Works is taking additional steps based on circumstances.
Any expansion of the current program would require a cost analysis, assessment of environmental impacts to air quality and resources that might be required to sweep the streets afterward.