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OOClQ28 GENERAL INroRMl\.TION Most of the counties studied are divided into road maintenance districts (not all of which, for lack of snowfall records, are included in this study). Routt has three districts and La Plata has four; Lake and San Juan, on the other hand, each have only one district. Although most equipment is housed and maintained in "county shops, n in very rural counties operators sometimes keep machines at their homes. The "typical" district in the counties studied has one foreman, seven operators and one or two mechanics who work in the shop maintaining and repairing equipment. All counties studied use "maintainers" (road graders) to remove snow. These machines usually are equipped with external wings to increase swath. Some counties also use dump trucks equipped with blades and wings art! drop-in sanders. The age of the equipment varies considerably, and some counties still use machines built in the 1950s. New equipment is very expensive--a top-of-the-line maintainer costs well over $100,000. The primary responsibility of removal crews in the counties studied is to maintain roads used by school buses and the postal service. When snow falls overnight, crews often start removing it as early as 4:00 a.m. Work continues until the roads have been cleared or until most residents have returned home in the evening. In counties frequented by tourists, crews sometimes clear roads as late as 11:00 p.m. When snow begins to fall in the counties studied, the foremen, equipped with four-wheel drive pickup trucks, survey road conditions. Some counties sand busy intersections and steep hills as soon as snow accumulates, but snow removal usually does not begin until one or two inches have fallen. Once removal begins, foremen check for trouble spots or equipment breakdown until clearing has been completed. Snow slides complicate snow removal in very mountainous counties such as San Juan. Safety dictates that an extra person watch the clearing of slides. -15-