CB streets pummeled by early winter storm

Winter parking regs are important

By Mark Reaman

The good news is that the North Valley received about 19 inches of snow this past weekend and that was one of the highest snowfall totals in the state.

The bad news is that the timing and quality of snow helped turn the streets of Crested Butte into a slushy, icy mess over the weekend. 

The combination of heavy wet snow, warm temperatures during the October 28-29 storm and the fact that the town’s parking regulations don’t go into effect until November 1 played havoc with snow conditions on town streets.

“There are a couple of factors,” explained Crested Butte public works director Shea Earley. “Most notably, the winter parking restrictions were not yet in effect. This makes snow removal extremely challenging on just about every road, outside of a portion of Elk Ave and Sixth St. Additionally, ground conditions were not conducive for snow removal within the gravel Rights-of-Way (ROW). Due to our warm weather coupled with the very wet snow, the ROWs were not frozen and subsequently any plow activity would have resulted in torn up ROWs throughout town.”

Earley said that with this specific storm, the plow crews concentrated on clearing the emergency routes and bus routes due to the parking restrictions and soft rights-of-ways that had not yet frozen enough to handle plowing. 

“With early season storms, our operations vary depending on a lot of different factors ranging from temperature (pre and post storm), timing in the year, amount of snow, forecasted weather during and after the storm, etc.,” he said. “Last weekend was one of those storms where one thing added on to another and there really wasn’t much option for us to push snow on most streets.”

 Earley said plow crews are prepared for the coming winter and with the implementation of alternate side of the street parking now in effect, snow removal should be up to snuff for the coming winter season.