Gloucestershire County Council’s gritting teams are working around the clock to keep the county moving in the severe weather.
For the past week, the 34-strong team have been out all around the county treating roads with grit and ploughing snow. The council has also mobilised dozens of farmers’ snow ploughs to help clear rural routes and to link with the highway teams and access smaller communities. On the whole, roads have remained open and passable with care though extremely low temperatures overnight on Sunday and Monday meant the effectiveness of the grit reduced or even stopped in some areas. When temperatures plummet below -7, grit become less effective. Below -10, grit has no effect at all.
Now temperatures have risen slightly, normal service is resuming. With more snow likely to fall this afternoon and through the night, the teams are on standby from midnight to go out when needed. A full run of the primary network – all A and B roads – will take place from 4am to help clear the roads of ice before tomorrow morning’s rush hour. Up to 10cm of snow is forecast to fall overnight, particularly in the north of the county, so the snow ploughs will also be out.
Cllr Stan Waddington, cabinet member for environment, said: “Our teams are working extremely hard to keep the roads open and I am confident that they are doing a great job. “Over the past few days, we have had criticism for not treating certain areas, but people have to be realistic. “We are treating all of the main roads and as many secondary roads and bus routes as we can – the simple fact of the matter is that when temperatures get as low as they did, salt is not as effective. “The situation today is much better and general traffic and buses are managing to get around well. “However, drivers should still be extremely careful when venturing out onto the roads.” Motorists are advised to stay off the roads if possible, but if you do have to drive, do so with extreme caution.
