Winter resilience road safety boosted by new gritting fleet

New Council fleet arrivals are preparing to help support safer roads during winter weather.

The Council’s Fleet Service has procured new gritters to replace its current vehicles which have reached their end of service life for the winter maintenance work they have to carry out.

Eight Econ Engineering Volvo gritters will replace the Council’s decade old fleet bringing in a more modern approach to supporting residents through periods of winter weather.

Each vehicle providers drivers with an intuitive in-cab display panel, allowing for quick and easy operation of the de-icing materials onboard during maintenance runs along Denbighshire’s gritting routes.

Council gritter drivers have taken part in training on the new vehicles carried out by Fleet Services staff to familiarise themselves. A trial run to test winter preparation will take place in the north and south of the county on October 15 and 16. The gritters will be out on the gritting routes in the area to make sure they are ready to tackle the winter weather. Information gathered from the drivers taking part will help inform plans for winter maintenance.

Denbighshire’s road network covers little used rural roads to the highest A Class Road in Wales. It also extends to crucial regional strategic routes such as the A55 to narrow tracks serving very isolated properties.

The gritted network is split into nine Priority Gritting Routes: four covering the North of the county, three covering the middle of the county with two covering the south of the county.

These nine routes cover approximately 950km and treat 605km of the total Denbighshire network which is 1418km.

Cllr James Elson, lead member for Environment and Transport said: “This investment to replace our aging gritting fleet is important to maintain our resilience to provide support to keep our region’s roads open for essential traffic and residents during periods of adverse winter weather. This modern fleet provides a safer cab to work in for our drivers who work long hours, sometimes through the nights when the snow and ice hit the county.

“This team works incredible hard across the county to keep our road networks open and safe to use and we are grateful they are preparing to gear up again with these new vehicles to support our residents with winter around the corner.”