Photo by Will Cornelius
One of Berthoud’s three snow plow trucks used to clear streets in the winter.

By Will Cornelius
The Surveyor

Late at night the text came through. Meet at 5 a.m. tomorrow morning and be ready for a long day. That was the plan the Town of Berthoud’s Streets and Drainage team put together last Wednesday night as a large winter storm barreled toward the Front Range with forecasts for snowfall given in feet in some areas.

Clearing snow from Berthoud’s streets is no easy task. “Every storm is different,” says Brandon Keegan, the supervisor for the town’s streets department. “Sometimes you come in thinking we’re going to get a certain amount of snow, the forecast is two inches and we’ll have two feet. So you have to be prepared for anything,” Keegan explains.

He says that it is difficult to gauge when and how much snow will fall, making flexibility and adaptability key for the department. Preparation begins at least a day before forecasted snow falls with maintenance technicians inspecting trucks and plows.

Clearing roads before people wake up and have to drive to work is one of the major functions of the snowplows along with ensuring emergency services can access roads. The Colorado Department of Transportation handles U.S. 287 and Larimer County deals with many county roads but keeping Berthoud’s streets clear is the town’s responsibility.

Late last Wednesday evening, Keegan let his team know that they were expecting a significant amount of snow overnight and that they would start plowing the streets early morning Thursday.
Along with the rest of the team, Adam Lambing arrived at the department’s truck depot north of town just before 5 a.m. last Thursday. “It’s scary—but fun,” Lambing says with a laugh about driving the snowplows.

Since joining the town’s streets department a couple of years ago, Lambing has been one of Berthoud’s half-a-dozen snowplow drivers. For him, there is always a feeling of excitement around snow days because there is still a child-like thrill of plowing the streets.

Sitting in the driver seat of a large Dodge Ram flatbed pickup, Lambing double-checks to make sure he has snacks and caffeine before he drives south to Fourth Street to start his first route. With his coffee nearly empty he pulls out a Red Bull from his lunch pail as the snowplow rumbles south down Fourth Street.

A previous snowplow has already cleared the middle of the street, allowing Lambing to focus on widening the cleared snow. With one hand on the wheel, Lambing controls the plow with his other hand, angling the plow to push snow toward the curb and gutter. “I like to shoot from the hip,” Lambing says about using the plow.

With such heavy snowfall, Lambing says one of the chief concerns is making sure the snow is pushed to spots where it can drain. The other challenge is ensuring that the ridges of snow created by the plow—called windrows—do not prevent people from getting out of their driveways or obstruct intersections.

On the back of the trucks is a massive container filled with ‘slicer,’ the material laid down to facilitate melting snow. Depending on the temperature and time of day, the snowplow crews will use the ‘slicer’ to clear snow.

But Lambing says he does not expect to use it a lot today because it is warmer than usual and the snow is already very wet.

The slicer only works to break up the snow, it does not melt it. It also does not work when the temperature drops below 25 degrees he explains.

Driving south on Fourth Street, Lambing clears the road as early morning commuters start to filter through the streets. With a plow and heavy snowfall, the truck can only go 20 miles per hour. Any faster and it becomes difficult to see or plow anything.

Arriving at Mountain Avenue, Lambing explains that the team works on ‘priority one roads’ first before branching out to others. Along with Fourth Street and Mountain Avenue, several other roads are deemed a priority for the town, like Spartan Avenue, Berthoud Parkway, First Street and County Road 14. Across Interstate 25, Berthoud’s snowplows also clear County Road 11 to ensure Weld County emergency services have access.

The town also prioritizes certain areas or buildings, like the four area schools, retirement homes and the Berthoud Recreation Center.

“There’s our park people,” Lambing points out as he waves to a small crew of parks department workers shoveling snow around Mountain Avenue while it is still dark out. With smaller snowplows, snowblowers and shovels for sidewalks, the parks department handles most of downtown Berthoud, while the streets department clears the roads surrounding Berthoud.

Spartan Avenue is next on the to-do list for Lambing. He says it is one of the harder streets to plow because the snow on the south side of the road can build up and turn to ice due to a lack of sun. Methodically trudging back and forth five times along the road, the snow is fully cleared to the north side of the road where it will melt over the coming days. “Looks like I did a pretty good job,” Lambing says with a smile as he checks his work in the rearview window.

After that, he radios the other plow drivers for an update. Roads are getting cleared and the snow is expected to break mid-morning for a few hours he is told. But more importantly, he wants an update on what they have going at the 7-Eleven this morning.

Everyone at 7-Eleven knows the street department workers and sees them regularly at all hours of the day. Lambing asks if there are any hot dogs on the rollers yet. None yet he is told, but they will make sure to get some going for him. “7-Eleven is pretty nice to us,” Lambing mentions as he pulls out of the parking lot.

With priority roads clear for the moment, Lambing heads to the Farmstead Development east of First Street to start plowing their streets. Around 9 a.m. the snow stops and the team decides to head back to the depot for a short break.

“I got a few thumbs-ups,” Lambing tells the other snowplow drivers at the depot. The street department workers swap stories about the morning’s routes and how much more snow they think will come later.

“I’m really adamant about checking up on things and trying to make everyone happy,” says Keegan about ensuring Berthoud’s residents can get around town when it snows. He says it can be hard to please everyone when it is snowing, but prided himself and his team on keeping the town’s main streets open when a storm hits like they did last week.