By: Pat Kennedy and Kristina Reichert
To the men and women who handle snow operations in Denver, twenty deployments each season to plow nearly 5 ft of annual snow is just another day at the office. It goes with the job, and the staff handle the shift changes and varying conditions with aplomb. Like much of the country, however, Denver is experiencing a cultural shift that requires new equipment and tactics to address the safety needs of the traveling public.
The buzz-word is multimodal; this means that street cross-sections now are laid out to provide dedicated access to multiple forms of transit. There are now separate lanes for buses, cars, bicycles, and wider sidewalks containing pedestrian amenities and other features. For the most part, plowing the vehicle lanes was never a big issue. Lanes were wide and there was plenty of storage for snow in, or adjacent to the parking lanes. With the increased installation of dedicated bicycle lanes, the area once used for snow storage has now become a travel lane. Hauling snow from these lanes is not a realistic option. The work is time-consuming and expensive, plus it requires a location to store the snow with proper drainage facilities to collect debris and filter the melt water before it reenters the environment as point discharges with higher concentrations of deicers. Denver Public Works staff have worked with the bicycle community to inform the public that cyclists need to expect most bike lanes to be considered as shared lane configurations while plowing operations are in effect and for a short time after snow has ended.
Protected bike lanes, also called cycle tracks, are expanding in their use. These lanes are separated from vehicle lanes by physical barriers or set at elevations a few inches higher than the other street pavement. To clear these areas of snow, smaller equipment is necessary. This results in additional capital equipment and personnel outlay to maintain safe traveling conditions in these areas. In Denver, a separate crew was created to clear bicycle lanes and pedestrian bridges with plowing, deicer distribution and sweeping capabilities.
