A Lot Of Work Remains For CDOT & Denver Public Works
DENVER (CBS4) - The Colorado Department of Transportation says it has 500 plows deployed statewide to clear highways, and for Denver Public Works it's also all hands on deck, but roads were still treacherous Wednesday evening. With colder temperatures on the way, now comes the ice.
Interstates and many other highways were closed for much of Wednesday and started to reopen in the late afternoon. One trouble spot for CDOT lasting into Wednesday evening was Interstate 25 and Monument Hill. At approximately 7 p.m. crews were still working to clear a semi accident and dozens of other spun out vehicles that have been stuck since noon.
"For people running out of gas our tow trucks will have fuel. We and CSP are working both the front and back of the queue to assist and possibly turn people around," CDOT said in a statement.
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Most of Wednesday during the day in the metro area a lot of people stayed off the roads making the job easier for plow drivers. Denver Public Works has been in full deployment in terms of manpower and equipment since before dawn.
They started plowing streets at approximately 4:30 a.m. and said the main issue was slush. They were using dry ice slicer which they say adds traction and helps break up the snow.
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"We are not foreseeing any ice-up … pavement temperatures are really warm. They were warm when the storm came in, so we are going to see a lot of slush," Heather Burke with Denver Public Works said. "We just advise drivers to take things slow."
But temperatures were expected to drop substantially overnight.
Plow drivers were also having to go around a lot of tree branches that went down.
LINK: Traffic Section