Almost as quickly as a foot of snow knotted up Front Range travel the day before, the sun and road crews untied the mess Friday.
Businesses and schools that shuttered early Thursday as a blizzard blanketed streets helped the cause by staying closed or starting late.
Snowplows hit the highways again Friday, especially in the metro area, where 90 trucks — a full staff — were working to remove snow and icy rut patches, said Bob Wilson, a Colorado Department of Transportation spokesman.
“We had a bit more snowpack than we like to see during the morning commute, but once we got traffic on it, it started to melt very quickly,” CDOT spokeswoman Stacey Stegman said.
Westminster reported 17 inches of snow Thursday. Nederland, in the mountains west of Boulder, reported 12 inches of snow, as did Greeley.
In Aurora, the mop-up effort was in full force Friday, said Chris Carnahan, the city’s operations manager. Crews were out clearing slushy roads and making sure there weren’t any drainage issues.
Because of budget constraints, crews cleared only major roads like Alameda Avenue, Chambers Road and Mississippi Avenue, and let folks fend for themselves on neighborhood streets.
But that didn’t appear to be too big of a headache. The city deployed 62 plows that had been waiting since midnight Wednesday to tackle the storm.
“The storm was not as intense as expected. This is one that went on the good side,” Carnahan said.
It was the same thing in Douglas County.
Randall Teague, the county’s road and bridge manager, said crews skipped the de-icer in favor of a sand and salt mix to give motorists more traction on the snowpacked roads.
Douglas County experienced some major drifts in the south near the Palmer Divide. But Friday, most of that was a distant memory and the sun rescued the day. Crews were busy breaking up snowpacked roads but by midafternoon it was mainly slush.
In Westminster, city snowplows worked through the night clearing streets, said street operations manager Ray Porter.
In all, 42 pieces of equipment — from the city and contractors — were used, Porter said.
Crews will continue to clear walkways, trails, parks and related facilities through the weekend, Porter said.
In Fort Collins, the storm dropped snow amounts ranging from 6 to 9 inches, according to the city.
As of Friday, the Fort Collins streets department spent $120,000 — including $11,000 in contractor costs — to keep streets clear.
