Private snow should stay off Arapahoe County roads

A shovel or a plow blade can move a surprising amount of snow, and after a big Front Range storm the easiest place to send it is the street. That move is not allowed. Property owners and contractors may not push snow from private property onto county streets or roadways, and the reason becomes obvious the next cold night.

A pile that lands in the road freezes solid. It narrows a lane, blocks the drainage at the curb, and hides where the pavement ends. Worst of all, it can undo the work of a plow that already made the road passable, so a cleared route becomes a rutted one again.

Two other winter chores fall to the property owner. Clearing the sidewalk in front of your place is your job, not the county’s. And if a fire hydrant sits on private property, keep it dug out so crews can find and reach it when minutes count.

The fix is simple once you know it: clear your own driveway and walk, but stack the snow on your own ground rather than feeding it into traffic. When a public road itself is the problem after a storm, the Road and Bridge division handles plowing and takes service requests, which beats trying to chip out a frozen lane yourself.