Snowbusters of Gilpin County

Lynn Volkens

01/04/2007 - Gilpin County’s white Christmas began creating itself at the rate of about three inches per hour on Wednesday afternoon, December 20^th. It continued through Thursday morning, blanketing familiar scenery in up to 39 inches of snow. With the sun breaking through, Gilpinites began looking up from their shovels and snowplows to view the Continental Divide between cloud shroud, powder-pillowed pine boughs and snow diamonds glinting everywhere. Maybe, just for that Gilpin moment, there was time for an appreciative, “ooohh, aaahh,”–and then it was back to the old heave-ho, ho, ho.

  Out on Gilpin’s roads the heaving was of the colossal grader/blader kind. Road and Bridge Director, Earl Robinson, had called out all of his staff plus the auxiliary (Maintenance Director Tim Lewerke and Facilities Manager Bill Paulman). With additional snows adding to the accumulation, the crews would work for the next eleven days in a continuous effort to clear the County roads. They worked round-the-clock in a rotation of twelve hours on/eight off. County policy requires that staff take eight hours off to rest—not so for salaried employees like Robinson. As the storm intensified, he said he logged 32 hours straight, manning a grader himself for awhile, then breaking the crew, then taking care of maintenance needs, fielding phone calls, meeting crew needs and making sure no area was overlooked. Robinson said he hadn’t gone without sleep that long since he was in the U.S. Air Force. A former pilot, he said he experienced another Air Force moment, when he became so disoriented in the blowing snow and white landscape that he found himself going the wrong direction, ending up in a totally different area than he’d intended—like flying in conditions of no visibility, he said, but this time there was no instrument panel to direct him. That was in the Chalet Park/Aspen Springs area where Robinson said the snow was deepest, but conditions were much the same throughout the County.

  The most difficult areas of Gilpin to get cleared are generally in the Quien Sabe and Gilpin Gardens subdivisions. There, the roads are narrow and, with no right-of-way, there’s no place to put the snow as it’s cleared. The Apex/American City areas were also troublesome, he said, reckoning there was six to ten more inches of snow there than on other roads, and clearing is limited by trees closing in on both sides. Big pitfalls this time were Rangeview Road because of the wind, Pactolus Road because of stranded vehicle obstructions, and Wedgewood, where the front-wheel-drive on the grader broke down and it had to be towed out in the wee hours of Friday morning (December 22^nd). Back in the mid-County shop, two men worked through the night, completing five hours’ worth of repair work and putting the grader back in commission by dawn.

  Robinson said the machines were going constantly. That included six graders, six big trucks, two smaller plow-trucks, one bucket loader and a “lozer.” The last is what Road and Bridge crews call their hybrid loader-bulldozer equipped with a set of “million dollar” logging chains for fat tires that otherwise “go like toboggans,” said Robinson. Thus equipped, it pretty much goes anyplace it wants, he said, and was pushing snow all of Wednesday night in Dory Lakes subdivisions. Even with all available crew and equipment working all hours, a storm like the initial one before Christmas and another on its tail, getting to and keeping all of the County’s roads passable is a challenge. Six to seven inches of snow is “no big deal” for his department, said Robinson. In five to seven hours, it’s taken care of. But when the accumulation is two-three inches per hour, “look behind the crewman and there can be another fifteen inches where he started.”

  Asked if there’d been any complaints, Robinson said he was giving the News the same answer he’d told County Commissioner Jeanne Nicholson earlier the same day, “Our thank-yous and words of appreciation far outnumbered complaints.” There was one guy in Wedgewood, Robinson admitted, who was “pretty excited—he wanted me personally, up there with a shovel.” But Wedgewood isn’t necessarily a priority area. School bus routes usually determine the priority, said Robinson, but when school is on break as it is now, there is no set priority policy. County Manger Roger Baker was on vacation, so Robinson said he met with Human Resources Director Susie Allen at the blizzard’s onset. They tried to prioritize which roads to clear first, based on those traveled most heavily, serving the most people, and those needed for emergency personnel to get out. They came up with 29 “VIP” roads, he said, noting that he didn’t have authority on his own to make the “high priority” determination.

  There are a couple of things Gilpinites can do to help Road and Bridge crews clear the roads more quickly. This is Robinson’s fifth winter in Gilpin and he said when the forecasters start talking about snow coming in “feet” versus “inches,” they haven’t missed yet. “So when you hear them (forecasters) talking feet,” he said, “leave work early and get home as soon as you can.” Pull the vehicle as far off the road as possible if it must be abandoned, he said. Cars stuck alongside the roads, and sometimes in the middle of the roads, impede the process immensely. One had to be towed because it was “smack in the middle of Wedgewood,” said Robinson. (Road and Bridge tows vehicles only as a last resort, asking the Sheriff to identify the owner from the license plate number and contact them first.) Robinson was trying to clear Pactolus Road when he came upon a car stuck on one side of the road, then a hundred feet further another stuck on the other side of the road. The further he got along Pactolus, the more he had to weave in and out around stranded vehicles. When finally he reached the turn-around at the end, there were four cars parked in it. He had to reweave his way back down in reverse. It was night and the headlights kept icing over. That took a lot more time than having a clear shot would have taken, he noted, marveling that he and other crewmen in similar situations, didn’t “swap paint” with any of the stranded vehicles. “The County won’t even have to replace any car mirrors this time,” he said. On Highway 119, Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) couldn’t plow the highway because of vehicle obstructions at Blue Spruce Road. (CDOT clears Highways 119 and 46.) Despite the bad weather conditions, Robinson said his crews conducted their work safely: “We’re batting a thousand; there were no accidents—except for a few mailboxes.” That’s the other thing that will help when the snow’s piling high. “Tie or nail a broom or a pole to your mailbox,” he advised.

  Residents can expect to see the crews getting to Gilpin roads more quickly after the new Road and Bridge building is completed. Now, said Robinson, with equipment parked outside due to lack of space, the crews are delayed while they brush the snow off the big equipment and wait for engines to warm. They’re looking forward to having everything parked inside – and to bay doors that aren’t frozen shut. Robinson had spent some of his time just trying to get the doors open when the storm began then repeating the process, as needed.

  Crews were finishing the last road (Thorodin) on December 30^th, as this interview took place. Robinson said some of his crew had also been called out that morning for emergency grading on Wink’s Way so that High Country Fire Department could reach a house fire. At La Chula Vista, more emergency grading was needed for ambulance access. In Aspen Springs, a strange-looking yellow steel machine was widening narrow spots, pushing back the banked snow with a vertical (sort of) airplane wing attachment. Even when the storm’s done, Gilpin’s Road and Bridge Department isn’t. Cleanup continues. “The crew did great,” Robinson concluded, “they’re a bunch of hard-working guys.”