Snow Removal Information

Snow Removal Priorities

City of Greely crews work to get streets open as quickly as possible. To provide the best service to the city, officials developed a plowing system prioritizing roads based on safety, use, and access to critical infrastructure and key facilities.

• Primary Streets — include major arterial roads, high-density streets, and areas near hospitals, fire and police stations, large employers, activity centers, and schools.
• Secondary Streets — include collector roads, key local streets, and areas near health care facilities.
• Conditional Streets — include smaller local and neighborhood roads.

Except for unusual conditions, plow crews will keep all Primary and Secondary streets open and maintained. Conditional streets will be maintained when snow amounts and weather forecast warrant.

Sidewalks are ultimately the responsibility of the property owner, but to ensure the mobility of its residents, there are locations where city crews do remove snow from sidewalks. Please refer to the above interactive map to identify these locations.

Downtown Snow Removal

The City of Greeley downtown area consists of the area from 5th Street to 16th Street from 7th Avenue to 11th Avenue. Crews will remove snow curb to curb and de-ice the downtown area when the amount of snowfall warrants the process usually the night after the storm stops. During this process the snow is removed from the gutters and parking areas into windrows and the snow blower will blow the snow into trucks to be hauled to specified locations.

The downtown area parking lots are also cleaned as a part of the downtown snow removal process.

Sidewalk Snow Removal for City Owned Sidewalks

City owned sidewalks are cleaned three ways, hand shoveling, with a tractor/broom and sometimes a plow. Once the roadways are completed, then the process will start for cleaning all city owned sidewalks. Depending on the severity of the storm, completions times may vary on sidewalk snow removal.

Parks and Natural Areas and Trails

Snow is cleared from park paths and paved natural area trails using trucks/ATVs with plows and via hand shoveling. Snow is not removed from soft surface natural area trails. Generally, snow removal begins after the snow stops falling. In heavy storms, crews may begin clearing snow while it is still falling, to prevent excess accumulation. Depending on the severity of the storm, completion times may vary for snow removal on paths and trails.

Crews will continue to monitor trails and paths for ice, as the snow on the side of the trails melts and re-freezes. Crews will apply sand and/or salt to address ice on the trails and paths. Trail users are advised to use caution even when the park paths and trails are cleared of snow.

Things to Know

• Do not pass snowplows: In 2019, Gov. Jared Polis signed House Bill 19-1265 into law, increasing penalties for motorists who pass snowplows. It is now a Class A traffic offense to pass a snowplow operated by a state, county or local agency when the truck is displaying its lights and operating in a tandem formation with one or more snowplows.  Stay back 200 feet behind a snowplow.
• In City Ordinance, Section 18-195, it states that it is unlawful for any person to drag, shovel or deposit any snow that has been removed from private property upon any street, gutter or sidewalk or upon any other public ground or place in the city. Failure to comply with this section shall be a violation subject to the sanctions set forth in chapter 10 of title 1 of this Code.
• It is helpful to keep cars parked off the street whenever possible during snowstorms allowing the plow drivers to do a better job cleaning the roadways. Certain Roadways are signed as snow routes and require cars not to be parked on the street during and following snowstorms. Cars parked on the street, and in violation of the snow route signage, will be towed at the owner’s expense. Please view the interactive map to see if your home is on a snow route.
• Sidewalks are to be clear of snow within 24 hours of the storm ending. To report sidewalks that have not been shoveled or cleared within 24 hours after snowstorm stops, either call 970-350-9833 or report a violation online at https://greeleygov.com/services/cc.