Nottinghamshire County Council have today announced “they’re ready” to help keep our roads clear this winter.
The council’s latest plans to keep the borough moving during the winter months were outlined this week in a report by the council’s Community and Place Committee.
As well as plans to keep the roads clear, the report also revealed improvements were being introduced to help bolster resources ahead of the winter season.
Via East Midlands, which manage the County’s highways network on behalf of the County Council, will carry out the winter maintenance operations based at the Council’s four highways depots.
Similar to previous years, gritting teams are officially on low-risk standby from October, with salt barns already well-stocked. In fact the county has 10,000 tonnes more salt stockpiled than official government recommendations, putting Nottinghamshire in an excellent position should we face the worst winter conditions.
All 30 gritting lorries in the county’s fleet are all equipped with an CCTV system, to help monitor road surface conditions as well as being tracked by GPS technology.
We operate from four of the six highway depots countywide in Gamston, Markham Moor, Newark and Bilsthorpe.
Overall, the council has the capacity to store around 20,000 tonnes of salt – some 18,000 tonnes of it under cover. Checking and refilling of the 1,300 roadside grit bins has already begun and deliveries of salt to parish councils are planned for November.
Councillor John Cottee, Committee Chairman for Community and Place at Nottinghamshire County Council, said: “Winter maintenance is a high priority for us, so we plan for winter all year round so we are in a strong position and ready for whatever the winter brings. “
Improvements for the coming season includes:
• Three gritting vehicles – which have come to the end of their life-span – have been replaced with three new four-wheel drive gritting vehicles to help increase resilience for coping in severe weather.
• Roadside weather stations at A614 Perlethorpe and A611 Coxmoor have been refur-bished and upgraded, including replacing sensors and new CCTV cameras to im-prove the quality of weather forecasting information and to help monitor road surface conditions.
Kevin Heathcote, Team Manager at Via East Midlands, which manage highways services on behalf of Nottinghamshire County Council, said: “October signals the start of our gritting teams on low-risk standby, so we are now ready to treat our gritting routes as and when it is needed with our team of dedicated drivers.”
For more information about gritting routes, winter driving advice and other information visit:
www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/winter
Gritting facts and figures:
• The end of March is the last official day when the county’s gritting teams are on full 24/7 standby but they remain on part-standby until mid-April when the danger of ice and frost is fully past.
• In all, the County Council gritted on 62 days last winter, between October and April. It completed 65 runs on main routes and eight runs on severe weather routes.
• The County Council salts A and B roads, heavily trafficked major roads and many main bus routes.
• The County Council’s Gritter Twitter social media feed will once again be used to promote the daily gritting decision to all interested stakeholders.
