Gritter gangs out in force in snow and icy conditions

Gritting gangs have been working around the clock to keep local roads safe during the past few days of snowy and freezing weather. 

Since the latest cold snap began on December 30, Lincolnshire County Council’s teams have carried out 11 full gritting runs across the county. 

These took place across the day and night ranging from as early in the afternoon as 3pm to as late into the small hours as 3am, to treat the ice forming on key routes. 

During the period up until last night (January 5) the 47-strong (43 on the road, four spares ready to take over if any route has an unplanned issue) fleet of gritters covered a total of 34,946 miles (52,778 kilometres) across Lincolnshire’s huge road network. 

Nearly 3,600 tonnes of salt were used during these 11 runs with each run using an average of 325 tonnes for each pass. That works out at around 650 tonnes being spread on the roads overnight. 

So far this winter, LCC has used nearly 9,000 tonnes of salt across 28 full gritting runs and is ready to turn out as needed to keep main routes across the county useable.   

Darrell Redford, Network Resilience Manager at LCC said: “We are working hard to keep the roads in as good a condition as we can during these very cold temperatures.  

“The ice and snow are constantly changing conditions to deal with, and we use an array of technology, local knowledge and equipment to get the most improvement to the road network where it can benefit the most people. 

“Whilst our drivers and gritting team are out around the clock in often perilous conditions putting the salt on the road, we can’t be everywhere so the advice is to stay alert, drive to the conditions and allow for more time if you have to make a journey.” 

A Yellow weather warning of possible snow and ice in Lincolnshire issued by the Met Office is still in force for this morning.