Denver Public Works employees Dave Moore, back left, and Dave Champ, right, affix snowplows to the last truck in a fleet of 60 that will be used to plow residential Denver. The trucks will work alongside 30 parks and recreation plows and 30 contracted plows to make residential streets drivable. (AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post)
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This time Denver isn't taking any chances.

For only the third time since storms and hard cold caused dangerous driving conditions on residential streets in the winter of 2006-2007, the city is using four-by-four pickup trucks with plows on side streets.

"We're seeing a lot of icy roads," said Ann Williams, spokeswoman for Denver's Department of Public Works.

The city was criticized for its snow-removal performance in 2006-2007. Residents had to drive over ice-clogged and rutted side streets to reach main arteries free of snow.

Then-Mayor John Hickenlooper vowed the city would do a better job clearing side streets and policy was changed to get plows into residential neighborhoods when certain conditions are met.

"Car after car has gotten stuck; FedEx has gotten stuck; delivery trucks for Highland Square have gotten stuck; 4X4s have gotten stuck," a resident of southeast Denver told the Post of conditions on his block at Christmas time 2006.

The residential plows are only deployed between Nov. 15 and March 15 under conditions that include prolonged cold temperatures.

Snow that melts during the day and freezes at night creates a sheet of hard, rutted ice.

The residential plows don't bring the street to bare pavement, instead shaving a layer of snow from the top and making the street safer for drivers, Williams said.

"We consider deploying this program to be an emergency measure only used under specific criteria because it employs such expensive and extensive resources. Because of these reasons, the residential plows do not deploy every time snow falls," she said.

The residential plows take one swipe down the middle of every side street to prevent deep ice rutting and to keep the streets passable.

The residential areas will not receive any anti-icing or de-icing material.

Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671, tmcghee@denverpost.com or twitter.com/dpmcghee