Gritting teams from Cumbria’s councils have been out gritting routes across the county as the temperature drops.
Cumberland Council’s highway network has over 3,600km of carriageway and Westmorland & Furness Council is responsible for around 4,200km of roads.
Each council has a hierarchy of roads – and pre-grits the most essential before bad weather.
In Cumberland, primary roads are gritted within two-and-a-half hours of a decision to salt the roads. Primary roads are those which carry a large volume of traffic and link the major economic centres in the county and the region.
Secondary roads are also gritted within two-and-a-half hours. Secondary roads serve more local needs, but still carry significant volumes of traffic.
Wherever possible the primary and secondary roads will be pre-treated before 8am.
Here’s where Cumberland Council has gritted for today, Tuesday December 30:
The authority said road surface temperatures were due to drop below freezing around 10.30pm yesterday, falling to as low as -3.9°C by dawn today.
Wet road conditions will transition to icy and slushy surfaces overnight. Calm to light winds expected. Grip was expected to reduce significantly to dangerous levels, reaching 0.38 by 3.30am. Extremely hazardous driving conditions were expected overnight and into this morning.
Westmorland & Furness Council has priority one and two roads.
Priority one roads are gritted approximately within two-and-a-half hours of a decision to grit the roads.
Priority two roads are gritted within five hours. Wherever possible, these roads will be pre-treated before 8am.
It can take gritters up to five hours to grit one road.
Here’s where Westmorland & Furness Council has gritted for today, Tuesday December 30:
It said road surface temperatures were due to be around or below zero and the forecast was dry with bright intervals this morning.
For more information about gritting in Cumbria, read our story here.
