Team treats thousands of miles to keep Denbighshire on the move

A team took on the equivalent of over 13 road trips from Land’s End to John O’Groats to help keep drivers moving safely during the recent winter weather.

Denbighshire County Council’s Highways and Streetscene  gritting crews have tackled 11,285 miles of county road network during the cold snap which impacted the region from New Year’s Eve till Sunday January 11.

During winter weather the county gritted network is currently split into nine routes covering 950km of which 605km is treated. We aim to grit priority gritting routes four hours before a minimum temperature of zero degrees or one degree if no actual frost is forecast by our weather forecast provider. The gritting salt must be crushed by traffic to make it effective.

Further assistance is provided by external agricultural contractors during periods of adverse weather and snow conditions, with the network divided into 31 additional routes.

During this period the crews used 2,805 tonnes of salt to treat the roads, that’s a larger weight than one of the UK’s famous landmarks, the Blackpool Tower which comes in around 2,000 tonnes

The team spent 2,040 hours treating the roads and in all completed 40 gritting runs covering the nine priority rotes throughout the county with additional patrolling and salting. 

Cllr Barry Mellor, Lead Member for Environment and Transport, said: “A huge thank you to all our gritter drivers who have kept working hard often throughout the night into the early hours of the morning, during this period of adverse winter weather. They are a fantastic team who have worked hard in pretty awful conditions at times to keep our priority routes safe as possible for our residents and drivers, what they have done and continue to do is appreciated by so many in the county.“