Durham County Council is preparing to take on the ice, snow and freezing temperatures of winter.

The council has gritters, snowploughs and snow blowers at the ready to keep roads and paths clear – and as safe as possible – as temperatures drop.

The council aims to grit around 45% of the county’s road network, which works out at about 1,060 miles. All A roads, most B roads, bus routes and other important thoroughfares will be gritted.

During an average winter, each road is gritted between 80 and 100 times. Gritting all of County Durham’s priority routes costs £35,000 each time and takes around two-and-a-half hours.

The council has the following resources at the ready:

  • 37 gritters, 33 trailer gritters and six snow blowers
  • 50 tractors and ploughs, along with hand-held grit spreaders
  • 42,000 tonnes of salt and 2,500 filled-up salt bins

Durham County Council’s cabinet member for neighbourhoods and local partnerships, Cllr Brian Stephens, said, “We have an extensive road network and parts of County Durham are prone to bad weather in winter.”

“Indeed, the Met Office confirms that the west of the county has, on average, the highest number of snow days in England.”

“This obviously creates huge challenges for us, but we know how important it is that we keep our main roads as clear and safe as possible.”

“We can assure residents that our teams will be out in the coming months, at all hours of the night and day, to ensure people’s journeys are disrupted as little as possible by snow and ice.”

photo courtesy of Matthias Ripp, from Flickr Creative Commons
The council has 37 gritters and 50 tractors at the ready (photo courtesy of Matthias Ripp, from Flickr Creative Commons)

To find out when and where gritting is taking place, please go to www.durham.gov.uk/article/6821/Winter-gritting-routes or search for #twittergritterNE on twitter.

You can report salt bins in need of refilling at www.durham.gov.uk/saltbins. If you feel your property is at immediate risk of flooding, you can order sandbags at www.durham.gov.uk/sandbags.

Information about weather warnings can be found at www.durham.gov.uk.weatherwarnings.

 


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DavidSunderland
David writes about local news, thought provoking stories, and yearns to capture the community spirit with a unique writing style.

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