by Steven Vetter, Managing Editor
A 50/50 chance of snow flurries for most of this afternoon is expected to change to a quarter-inch per hour of white stuff after 5 p.m. and up to a half-inch per hour after 1 a.m. tomorrow.
Colorado Department of Transportation officials said they are anticipating approximately 7 inches of total snow accumulation from this storm along the I-70 Corridor between Aurora and Limon.
“We’re hoping to see the snowstorm out by about 10 a.m. tomorrow,” said CDOT spokeswoman Stacia Sellers. “We are looking at about 28 plows making their loops on the Eastern Plains.”
CDOT also announced that it would use a time-tested anti-icing product as part of a pre-treatment program ahead of this storm but that it will only be utilized along main thoroughfares in the immediate Denver metro area. The use of the 23.3 percent brine solution, made up of rock salt and water, won’t be part of CDOT’s efforts east of Tower Road.
“We’re constantly looking for ways to further improve the way we fight snow and ice,” said Mike O’Neill, deputy director of maintenance for CDOT Region 1. “We’ve seen the anti-icing brine mix solution be very successful throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe and knew this was the right product to use in the Denver metro area.”
CDOT makes the brine in-house, at a rate of .42 cents per gallon. A corrosion inhibitor is also added to the mixture before crews begin applying it to the roadways.
The eastern I-70 Corridor through Deer Trail will be plowed with a CDOT tow-plow, meaning that passing by commuters will be strictly prohibited.
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