Are you ready for that major snowstorm? Pat Kennedy, P.E. Engineering Supervisor, Denver Public Works, Street Maintenance Denver, Colorado Member, APWA Winter Maintenance Subcommittee now response is a service every agency subject to winter weather is accustomed to and usually capable of managing with little effort. Plans, equipment and personnel are prepared and ready to implement when the first flakes hit the air. Every few years, however, a weather event will strike that stretches the best plans to the breaking point. At times like those it becomes apparent who has anticipated these large-scale events and is ready to ramp up their response to the challenge.
44 APWA Reporter
November 2012
Public Works staff members in Denver, Colo., are not novices to snow response. Crews on average deploy 15-20 times a year to address an annual average of 60” of snow. Of the fifty largest cities in the United States, Denver and Cleveland are virtually tied on who is the snowiest. To be fair, many smaller cities in upstate New York or other northern states receive more, but they have much smaller population bases and smaller road networks. Planning for major winter
events in a large metropolitan area is a challenge and should not be ignored. Historically in Denver, major storm events (12” or greater in 24 hours) occur every few years and generally are early- or late-season events with moderate temperatures. Mid-winter heavy snows are very uncommon. A set of major storms during the holiday period at the end of 2006 and early 2007 showed the management of Denver that the plans for major storms were
