A 30-strong fleet of gritters and a host of other vehicles are standing by to keep Cumbria moving when winter bares its teeth.
Late October to early April is the traditional "high-season" for the massive winter maintenance effort made by the Cumbria Highways - the partnership between Cumbria County Council and its private sector partners, Capita Symonds and Amey Infrastructure Services.
The year the partnership is working with a winter maintenance budget of around £4million.
Cumbria Highways work together to try to predict when freezing conditions will affect roads and pavements and deploy their resources to treat a strategic network of routes when and where necessary.
It would simply not be feasible to grit every single road in the county, so Cumbria Highways concentrates on treating a core network of priority routes. These cover some 1,900km (1,200 miles) and Cumbria Highways aims to have them gritted within hours of the first indications that frost might form or snow fall.
Each complete grit spreading run uses around 300 tonnes of rock salt so the county keeps a stock of some 18,000 tonnes of the salt at huge salt barns in main highways depots as well as in 1,600 salt heaps and bins around the county.
The county council uses high tech forecasting systems to help predict road freezing and decide when to grit.
The Met Office’s highly specialised OpenRoad service is a key plank of the forecasting system. OpenRoad uses information from Cumbria’s network of road surface sensors and weather stations and analyses it along with global meteorological data from satellites and aeroplanes as well from other sources including weather balloon launches in Northumberland.
OpenRoad refines all this information about temperature, cloud cover, wind speed and direction and predicts ice formation. It even takes account of the differing thermal properties of different types of road surface and produces ice forecasts down to a very local level.
When freezing conditions are predicted the winter maintenance staff, on call 24 hours a day throughout the high season, swing into action treating specific stretches of highway where ice is forecast or tackling the entire priority network if necessary. They aim to treat the routes before ice takes hold because salt is better at preventing ice from forming that it is at melting it once it has arrived.
Forecasting is however, not an exact science and winter can be unpredictable. Last winter was the second warmest on record and the gritting fleet was called out far fewer times than expected. Winter 2005/6, however, saw the gritters in action well into springtime - much later than usual.
Each year, every household in the county is sent a special leaflet showing the roads that get treated as a priority when ice and snow arrive in order to help people plan their journeys on the safest possible routes.
This year a new look leaflet has been designed for motorists to keep in the glovebox. It features the countywide map of priority winter maintenance routes and includes some winter driving tips and some useful blank sections on which to keep important information such as tyre pressures and insurance details. A copy of the leaflet is attached to this release.
If winter weather conditions get really bad, Cumbria Highways can call on dozens of vehicles and in really extreme conditions the partnership even has a network of farmers and contractors who will help clear roads of snow.
Ian Stewart, Cumbria County Council cabinet member responsible for highways, said: "Cumbria Highways has invested heavily in new gritters and resources to tackle winter weather on the roads - it is important to keep things moving, particularly in a county like Cumbria where the weather can be harsh and our winter maintenance service is second to none. I don't think most people realise how much effort and money goes into it. There are literally hundreds of tonnes of equipment and an army of people on call 24 hours a day throughout the winter months to keep the priority routes clear of hazards such as frost, snow and black ice. We are as ready as we can be for whatever winter throws at us."
ENDS
Media enquiries to Justin Hawkins, Media Officer on 01228 606334
Follow this link to view the Winter Maintenance Leaflet (PDF, 382Kb)