Heather Harding, the business manager for Mountain Sun, has commuted from Longmont to Boulder for the last 14 years. She says the state of roads between the two towns after a snow are “remarkably different.”
“I’m amazed at how well [Longmont] does. Like, everywhere you go,” she says. “And then I commute in on the Diagonal, and that’s pretty clear. When I get to Foothills and Valmont, it’s like it completely changes. Even that same road is worse, and then the side roads in Boulder are just crazy.”
Boulderites have long lamented the state of their winter roads. As one Redditor posted last year, “Why are Boulder roads so bad? The roads around Boulder are pretty ok. In the city of Boulder it’s like an ice rink. It’s really bad… What’s going on?”
Boulder Weekly set out to answer that question by looking at procedures, policies and spending. Spoiler: It’s hard to say for sure, but it’s likely a combination of natural circumstances and the resources the City puts toward snow and ice control.
Longmont has one clear advantage when it comes to snow removal. Boulder averages just over 90 inches of snow per year, while Longmont averages just over 45 inches annually, according to 30-year averages from National Centers for Environmental Information. In 2022, Boulder was dubbed “the snowiest city in America” by the Denver Post when it topped the country’s snowfall totals in cities with populations of 50,000 people or more.
Other natural factors likely play into road conditions, too.
“We don’t get that afternoon sun that some of our neighbors to the east get because we’re nestled right up against the mountains,” says Scott Schlecht, Boulder’s transportation maintenance manager. “We have a shorter melting period during the day.”
Mileage and money
Despite the stark difference in snowfall, Boulder and Longmont’s snow and ice removal operate largely the same.
In Boulder, roads are designated as either primary, secondary or conditional. Primary routes are plowed on a two to four hour schedule, secondary on a four to six hour schedule and conditional on a six to 12 hour schedule. Foothills Parkway, for example, is a primary route maintained by the City. Diagonal Highway, on the other hand, is maintained by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT).
Longmont plows about four times in a 12-hour cycle on average, according to Longmont Director of Public Works and Engineering Jim Angstadt, approximately every three hours — similar to Boulder’s schedule for primary routes. Longmont doesn’t have differing levels of priority for the roads it plows — both artillery and collector roads are plowed on that schedule.
Both cities have similar plowing frequencies and spend about $4,000 per lane mile they plow. That means Boulder has the same amount of money as Longmont to deal with twice the amount of snow.
Boulder County maintains 740 miles of road, 606 of which it plows. In 2023, it spent $2,345,777 on snow and ice removal. That’s $3,169 per mile (likely less in lane miles).
The state’s transportation department is responsible for state highways and interstates, which totals 23,000 lane miles. CDOT’s base snow and ice removal budget is $84 million, meaning it spends $3,652 per lane mile of plowed road.
Notably, county and state roads are distinct from city roads.
“CDOT has a much more uniform task of plowing long straight stretches of roads working in tandem. Their blades are much heavier and create greater downward force that would damage urban infrastructure such as storm sewers and other utilities in the roadway,” according to Longmont’s FAQ page. “Cities on the other hand must work in narrow roads around much more cross traffic and other obstacles such as storm drainage infrastructure. City equipment uses casters or hydraulics on blades to prevent them from damaging urban roads and infrastructure. In general, plowing in urban areas is more challenging and costs considerably more per lane mile.”
Traffic also differs on those roads.
“On the state highways and our open roads, you get faster traffic and more traffic moving through those areas,” Schlecht says. “And when we get parked vehicles, or traffic is at a standstill or whatever, those roads tend to go to snowpack very quickly, because you can’t get your plows through there. And then traffic is driving very slowly on it and not moving the snow around. They’re just packing it down.”
Materials and procedures
Despite what many people think, Boulder plows to the pavement while Longmont floats its plows a little above the street.
“Snow plowing is intended to reduce the depth of snow accumulation,” Angstadt says. “In our view in Longmont, it’s not intended to expose the paved surface.”
Boulder’s plows have a float setting to control the weight that goes onto the roads. That’s because too much downward force to the pavement can damage the roads, Schlecht says.
“Basically, the operator gets in, presses the button to put the plow in float, and then it will ride directly on the pavement, and we use steel blades and steel carbide blades that ride directly on the pavement at a set downforce,” he says.
Boulder and Longmont both use a salt brine solution ahead of snow storms to prevent icing. For deicing — melting down ice after a storm — both cities also use a liquid magnesium chloride and a granulate Ice Slicer mix.
However, the cities use different amounts of those products. In the 2022-2023 season, Boulder used about 180,000 gallons of salt brine and a little over 1,000 tons of Ice Slicer. Longmont used more than five times the amount of Ice Slicer, about 5,380 tons, but about half the amount of brine, 48,000 gallons.
Schlecht says Boulder tries to limit the amount of salts it puts down.
The de- and anti-icing agents introduce salts into the runoff that can end up in streams, Schlecht says, “so we have to be really mindful of the amount of salt that we’re putting out there.”
“Anecdotally, what we see across some of our neighboring communities is some overuse of the deicing materials,” he says. “When you see that white layer on all of the streets following a storm, that is directly from overuse. I think neighboring communities and anybody in the industry tries to be mindful of that, but we also don’t just keep applying when we know that we’ve already applied the material.”
The county uses a mixture of sand for traction and “really diluted” magnesium chloride, according to Andrew Barth, a spokesperson for Boulder County Public Works.
A fun fact? The county typically mixes molasses with those products to help make it stick — though that hasn’t been the case this year due to molasses supply issues, he says.
What about plowing into the middle of the road?
One difference between Boulder and Longmont is that Boulder plows snow into the middle of the road on some streets.
“When you have to cross the street, it’s treacherous,” says Mountain Sun’s Harding.
It turns out, plowing into the middle isn’t great for conditions either.
“If snow were plowed to the center of the road, Mother Nature’s freeze and thaw cycles would cause ice to continually build on the travel lanes, resulting in even worse traction,” according to Longmont’s website. “Our roadways, drainage systems and snow plow equipment are all designed to work best when snow is moved to the side.”
Schlecht says Boulder plows to the middle only in very limited areas and then will return to those areas to haul snow out once a storm is over if warm temps aren’t following. He agrees it’s not ideal — most of the areas where snow is plowed to the middle are downtown, where plowing to the sides would block business parking, or in areas with “severe shading,” he says.
“They used to plow a lot to the center in Boulder, but that snow piled in the center will melt during the day and then freeze and cause ice feeding issues on the street,” he says. “Also, it’s difficult for people to access driveways if they’re not on the same side of the street, and it’s also difficult for emergency services to cross over those intersections.”
Will it ever get better?
Boulder is in the middle of a snow and ice response review that has included public engagement, and is taking a look at where procedures can be improved. Proposed changes include adopting a storm-size-based approach and adjustments to what roads are in which priority level, with areas of highest equity priority receiving bigger increases in residential street clearing.
Additional funding will likely be requested to implement changes, and time will tell how much the changes improve road conditions.
Still, Boulder will have to contend with its natural circumstances — like the amount of snow and shade.
“We have finite resources and have to operate efficiently as you can within those resources while also considering environmental impacts of snow removal,” says Schlecht.
