Preparing for winter

Twenty five gritters and two snow blowers have been tested along 840 miles of the busiest roads this month as East Sussex Highways prepare for the winter weather.
By The Newsroom
Published 10th Oct 2006, 13:09 BST
Updated 7th Jun 2018, 21:33 BST

Later this year over 50 drivers will be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week along with a network of local farmers to defend our roads against severe winter weather.

Winter maintenance is a massive operation in the county, and to ensure it goes smoothly drivers and vehicles were tested along the 25 different routes which are gritted during the severe weather.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

This year, a whopping 9000 tonnes of salt is ready for use and is stored in depots across the county.

Every gritter carries up to nine tonnes of salt and puts down between five and nine tonnes on each route, depending on how severe the weather is. Most years there are between 30 and 35 callouts and around 6,000 tonnes of salt is used.

The decision on whether and when to carry out gritting is taken by the duty manager who has access to specialist data both nationally and locally from remote weather monitoring stations at Ashcombe, Golden Cross, Mark Cross and Guestling and specialist forecasts. The target is then to have treated all routes within 3 hours of the specified start time.

Councillor Matthew Lock, Lead Member for Transport & Environment, said: "Our winter maintenance team will do their absolute best to keep the main routes through the county clear this winter. However, it's not always possible to keep them clear, or stop them being dangerous - for instance if it rains in the night washing away the salt and then freezes, it is almost impossible to keep the routes clear of ice.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"I would urge people to take extra care when travelling, make sure that their tyres are in good condition, and, if in doubt about what routes are clear, tune in to local radio stations, who we will keep up to date with the situation on the roads."

Notes for editors

Snow Routes are only salted after standard routes have been treated and only if the weather forecast indicates the possibility of snow. Snow routes will include major bus routes and routes to schools. Every village/hamlet/urban estate will have at least one road that would connect it to the main salted network