Gritters out as snow forecast for North Somerset
By thepickler | Friday, February 03, 2012, 13:23
GRITTERS will be on stand-by in North Somerset this weekend to treat the district's roads as artic conditions continue grip the west.
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Will we see weather conditions like this on Saturday?
Snow - between two and five centimetres - is expected in North Somerset on Saturday.
The authority's fleet of six gritters have already been out salting the roads this week as temperatures plummet.
Highways teams carried out a full grit of the roads several times during the past week, which covered 29.2 per cent - 200 miles - of North Somerset's road network and used 41 tonnes of salt.
The specialist lorries drop salt at 20 grams per square metre and 30 tonnes of salt - the weight of more than four empty double decker London buses - is used each night.
Each lorry has a tracking system providing data about its location, how much salt it has dispersed and how fast it travelled.
Salting is kept mainly to priority routes including the A370, A369 and the A38, but other roads can be treated if deemed necessary.
As well as the main salting, contractors also treat '********s' on main routes where there is a risk that surface water will turn into ice.
Staff are now gearing up for further salting of the district's roads following forecasts temperatures will continue to plummet and snow is to hit the region on Saturday.
A decision on whether to salt the roads is based on the temperatures rather than air temperatures.
Special devices are fitted into the road surface to monitor the road temperatures and the council gets detailed reports from the Met Office when severe weather is expected.
A decision on whether to salt the roads is taken on a daily basis.
North Somerset Council spokesman Richard Turner, said: "Our gritters are on stand by and we will be monitoring the weather situation and responding as we need to.
"A judgement on road gritting is made on a day to day basis."
"We are gearing up to go out at the weekend."
North Somerset Council has tripled its salt supplies to cope in the event of a repeat of last year's harsh winter weather and now has 2,000 tonnes stored in a new warehouse at Sandford.
They say the supplies of salt will be enough to get the authority through an 'average' winter and that by upping its own stocks, North Somerset will be less reliant on the national supply chain.
Comments
The Ugly Duckling
There once was an ugly duckling
With feathers all stubby and brown
And the other birds said in so many words
Get out of town
Get out, get out, get out of town
And he went with a quack and a waddle and a quack
In a flurry of eiderdown
That poor little ugly duckling
Went wandering far and near
But at every place they said to his face
Now get out, get out, get out of here
And he went with a quack and a waddle and a quack
And a very unhappy tear
All through the wintertime he hid himself away
Ashamed to show his face, afraid of what others might say
All through the winter in his lonely clump of wheat
Till a flock of swans spied him there and very soon agreed
You're a very fine swan indeed!
A swan? Me a swan? Ah, go on!
And he said yes, you're a swan
Take a look at yourself in the lake and you'll see
And he looked, and he saw, and he said
I am a swan! Wheeeeeeee!
I'm not such an ugly duckling
No feathers all stubby and brown
For in fact these birds in so many words said
The best in town, the best, the best
The best in town
Not a quack, not a quack, not a waddle or a quack
But a glide and a whistle and a snowy white back
And a head so noble and high
Say who's an ugly duckling?
Not I!
Not I!
By DaffyDuckIe at 18:18 on 04/02/12
ReportThere once was an ugly duckling.....
By DaffyDuckIe at 18:17 on 04/02/12
Report