Notts gritters head out early as temperatures plummets

Nottinghamshire's gritting teams are ready to hit the roads tonight as temperatures drop.

The Met Office has predicted that road surface temperatures are set to drop towards 0 degrees with the risk of frost and ice forming.

Nottinghamshire County Council said that unless there is a major change in temperatures later today, gritting teams will be out salting the main routes across the county from 8pm.

It’s the latest activity which forms part of the annual winter preparations being put into force by Nottinghamshire County Council and its new joint venture company Via East Midlands. Via East Midlands is based at the county council’s highways depots and is managing winter maintenance. The Met Office forecasts are monitored every day from Via’s winter service team based at Newark depot.

Garry Chadburn, Team Manager for Electrical and Environmental Maintenance for Via East Midlands, which is managing highways services on behalf of Nottinghamshire County Council, said: “Unless temperatures dramatically rise later today, it looks like our gritting teams will be making their first run of the season tonight.

“The Met Office advises that the road temperature between midnight and 2am are set to drop towards 0 degrees C, the temperature threshold at which there is the risk of frost and ice forming on the road surface.”

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 69 days last winter, between October/November and April. It completed 71 runs on main routes and three runs on severe weather routes.

· The County Council only salts A and B roads, heavily trafficked major roads and many main bus routes. It only treats residential areas where they fall into the other categories – no council does as the priority is to keep the main road network open.

For updates this winter, check the @NottsCC Twitter feed.