Be careful out on those roads tonight
The government-owned company is now urging drivers to take care during the poor weather while also giving gritting teams space to operate.Darren Clark, Severe Weather Resilience Manager at National Highways, said: “We manage a huge roads network nationwide – with over 4,500 miles of motorways and A-roads.
“Not all roads will need treating on any given day. Gritters may need to go out in some regions if road temperatures fall below +1 degrees C, and if there is a risk of ice forming, but not in other areas if conditions are not as cold.“National Highways is committed to treating every road which needs to be treated – whenever it is needed.
National Highways has 530 gritter vehicles available this winter. A total of 443 of these vehicles are Volvo gritters.Vehicles in its winter gritting fleet can carry up to around 12,000 kg of salt, or 8,400 kg of salt and 3,600 litres of brine at any one time. The Volvo gritting vehicles can spread up to 50mph, encouraging traffic to keep moving more effectively on the roads even when they are being treated. When not treating they can travel up to 56mph.These vehicles are based at 128 depots nationwide with a stockpile of around 280,000 tonnes of salt for the autumn and winter season. There are two new depots in this total – one at Malton, on the A64 and one at Newport on the A63, both in Yorkshire.
Abigail Oakes, Senior Account Manager at the Met Office, said: “We are delighted to continue our close working relationship with National Highways this autumn and winter season.
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