CDOT started installing signs this year notifying drivers of its nearly three-decade-old policy limiting overnight plowing on lightly traveled highways.

CDOT is learning that no good deed goes unpunished.

For nearly 30 years it has had a practice during snowstorms of not plowing state highways that had light traffic during the overnight shift. Those highways were plowed 14 hours out of the day during storms, from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., if they served fewer than 1,000 vehicles a day. Other roads with more traffic got 24-hour treatment if needed.

It’s not that minor roads were left unplowed entirely. They were cleared during the day, but not overnight. And this has been CDOT policy since at least the 1980s. What happened was that in December last year, in an effort to be helpful to the travelling public, it decided to start posting signs on those stretches of roads alerting drivers to the plowing hours.

Click here for an interactive map showing all of the roads impacted by the limited plowing hours.

This apparently caused many folks to mistakenly think this was a brand new policy, another cutback by Gov. Bill Ritter and an ill-advised safety problem, when in fact rural drivers have been living with this practice for as long as anyone can remember.

As usual, there is more nuance here and less controversy than the sound bites would have you believe.

The only thing that was new about it was the signs letting you know about it.

Well, actually a few other things are new too. While a few maintenance sections around the state hadn’t been adhering to the policy and sometimes did work overnight on minor roads, the change last year required them to stick to it. But the Colorado Transportation Commission also added some exceptions that will allow overnight plowing on minor roads if they serve medical facilities or schools – things that weren’t provided for in the old version of the policy. Minor roads now also can be plowed overnight if there’s a danger that too much snow will result in their closure.

And CDOT regional directors can issue waivers to allow the additional hours of overnight plowing on segments of minor roads that have accident rates higher than the state average for similar roads.

So actually, the new policy could result in more plowing of minor roads than before.

Click here to read the policy update that was passed last year.

Click here to read CDOT’s response to the legislature’s joint Budget Committee last month when lawmakers asked about the policy. The issue is discussed on Page 2, at question 3.

But the desire to be more informative has led to a huge amount of misinformation – purposeful or unintentional – about this long-standing policy.

And some politicians are milking the issue for their constituents. Ironically, many are the same ones who early this year voted against a bill that increased CDOT funding.

In other words, they are urging CDOT to add a new state service that hasn’t been provided for three decades or longer while having voting against the first new money for state highway maintenance and repair in 18 years. That measure, the FASTER bill for replacing unsafe bridges and roads, passed anyway.

This is politics, plain and simple.

In fact, CDOT this year has increased its snow and ice control budget to $63.9 million to raise the level of service, the only maintenance category to increase this year.

The policy of limiting overnight plowing makes sense. With limited resources available to it, CDOT has to put the effort where it matters the most. Consider that Interstate 70 carries nearly 12,000 vehicles a day out east toward Kansas past Flagler, Siebert and Stratton. Interstate 25 toward Wyoming handles about 18,000 a day. I-25 over frequently closed Monument Hill has average daily traffic demand of more than 50,000 vehicles a day. These are vital transportation corridors, important to our state’s commerce and quality of life.

When a storm threatens to close these major highways, priorities have to be established especially when money is tight. It makes no practical sense to take away overnight crews from them – remember, we’re only talking here about the hours between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m. – to have them work overnight on CO 10 through Cuchara Junction – 630 vehicles a day – or CO 193 in Fort Lyon at 320 vehicles a day.