Blizzard Cleanup: Denver Plans To End Side Street Plowing

DENVER (CBS4) – Denver's Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, or DOTI, plans to end side street plowing at 3 p.m. on Tuesday. The agency said that its 39 small snowplows had been deployed since 7 p.m. Saturday night. DOTI will keep it's large plows deployed into Wednesday to continue clearing main roads, and to deal with any accumulation from new snow headed to the state.

Plows spread out over the city Monday, as this weekend's epic blizzard created headaches for people who had to dig out.

"Just making sure we can get out to work in the morning. That's most important," said Cecil Robinson as he dug out two cars.

The snow scattered by passing cars was not easy to move.

"It's really heavy," he said as he struggled with it. "But, got to get to work."

The streets were possibly in the worst shape on some of the side streets in the Central Park neighborhood. Most streets around the city had a single lane plowed by a smaller "residential plow." But some in the Central Park area showed no evidence of that.

"The side roads are very, very treacherous," said Susan Moreland who lives in the area. She and her husband park their cars behind their home with alley access.

"It was very drifted here. It was probably hip deep," she explained.

The alleys are not the city's responsibility, but that of the homeowner's associations. But with access slowed in the area, some alleys appeared undone early Monday evening.

The City of Denver notes that the smaller residential plows that do the side streets often do not get down to pavement level and carry no de-icing materials. That creates the possibility that as temperatures drop again, there could be icing of unplowed or lightly plowed streets.

"That's the nice thing about Denver, it heats up quickly," said mom Steph Schneider as she watched her kids sledding.

Shoveling was made easier Monday with the afternoon warmth in the south Denver area.

"You know you're a Coloradan when you're in shorts, your short sleeves, shoveling snow," said Don Peterson as he shoveled with his daughter.

She didn't mind at all.

"I would call it a Colorado workout," said Kit Peterson.