Council’s gritting team is delivering maximum winter operation schedule

As Cheshire West and Chester experiences some of the coldest temperatures and most challenging weather conditions this winter, the Council’s Highways team is delivering at peak operating capacity to keep the road network running smoothly.

The Council's Highways Service and its maintenance contractor Colas has mobilised their fleet of 16 gritting trucks 25 times so far this winter, with three runs in the past 24 hours.

During this week’s most recent period of cold weather, they have been called out 12 times.

The fleet keeps 515 miles of roads safe for drivers, using the 6,000 tonnes of rocksalt to treat key routes across the borough.

Primary routes are gritted first which include A roads, other main roads and routes used by the emergency services. In periods of continued bad weather secondary routes are sometimes gritted when the primary network is fully treated.

Recently, due to continuing cold weather, teams started on secondary routes as well as some locations for spot gritting assisted by colleagues in StreetCare.

Major trunk roads and motorways are gritted by National Highways, not the Council.

Road surface temperature and whether the road is wet or dry determines what grit treatment is needed – not the air temperature. The grit spread on roads is actually rock salt, which mixes with any moisture to create a saline solution. Saline solutions freeze at a lower temperature than water, so frost and ice doesn’t form on the road.

On nights where frost or icy conditions are forecast, the fleet will spread salt to help prevent ice from forming across the Council's highway network.  All gritters are equipped with GPS tracking to enable accurate monitoring of which roads have been treated.

Duty officers will mobilise the gritting fleet when it is predicted that road surface temperatures are to drop below freezing, allowing time for the salt to be applied to the road.  Salting is normally completed within four hours and usually before 7am. They receive detailed accurate weather information from specialist providers of both short and long range forecasts.

The current snow is causing hazardous conditions for drivers as spreading salt on top of snow is not effective.  Salt only works to break down ice on the road surface itself.  The recent overnight snow means not enough traffic is on the road to spread the grit and create a solution to allow the salt to do its job.

The Council’s Director of Transport and Highways, Rose McArthur said: “Our crews are on standby 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The call to go out could come at any hour of the day or night and teams must be ready to respond immediately. I would like to take this opportunity to pass on my thanks to the entire team who make our gritting operation possible, particularly in the current challenging period. Each run takes four hours to complete and teams have had to work very hard, carrying out multiple runs in a 24 hour period.

“When the fleet is mobilised it’s important that we grit within a specific time period which is why we target key roads.  We can only grit so much of the network within a timeframe and we must concentrate our efforts on key routes that see the most use.”

Salt bins are provided is specific locations for people to use during icy conditions. These are usually residential areas next to shopping areas, part way up hills with a slope over 10% or where there are special circumstances. You can ask for a top up for any current salt bins in your area on the Council’s website. (Under ‘Report or check a highways fault’ – Winter maintenance.)

Footpaths and cycleways are gritted if snow or ice is likely to last for over 24 hours and if resources are available. Busy footpaths and ones with special circumstances are gritted first – like outside hospitals, footpaths around schools and in shopping areas.

Gritting updates are available via the Council’s X (Twitter) feed - Search for the hashtag - #cwacgrit.

More information about the Council’s winter operations, including gritting routes, is on-line at:

 https://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/residents/transport-and-roads/highways/winter-gritting.aspx .