New high-tech gritters will be in operation across Yorkshire this winter, helping to keep road users on the move when severe weather hits.
Thirty-seven state-of-the art vehicles have joined National Highways’ winter fleet this year in the Yorkshire and Humber area as part of a national £44m investment. Twenty-one were introduced in 2019 in the North East, taking the total of gritters operating across Yorkshire and the North East to 58.
In addition, the region has two new winter maintenance depots, one just off the A64 at Malton in North Yorkshire and another off the A63 near Newport in the East Riding of Yorkshire.
Senior Network Planner for Resilience Gordon Thackeray, who heads up National Highways’ winter operations in the region, said:
“We are delighted the rollout of our new state-of-the-art gritting vehicles is complete, with every machine in position and ready for the winter season ahead to help keep our road users safer on the roads, whatever weather conditions we face.
“National Highways always strives to explore and embrace innovation to benefit our road users. These vehicles are environmentally friendly, have cutting-edge technological features and can be driven at a higher speed than older models.
“We now have a total of 58 vehicles ready to be deployed across Yorkshire and the North East and all of them will play their part in helping our autumn and winter operations team, including our drivers, to carry out their vital work over the next few months to treat the road surfaces whenever and wherever it is needed.”
The leading-edge Volvo Romaquip gritting vehicles are eco-friendly and will benefit road users with precision salt spreading and other technological advances including:
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Enhanced performance: The gritters can travel at a maximum speed of 50mph when salt spreading – ten miles an hour faster than earlier vehicles – helping to keep traffic moving on the roads during periods of salt spreading.
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Eco-friendly: They are the cleanest and most efficient diesel heavy goods vehicles available in the UK, meeting Euro 6 requirements – the latest EU emission standards for heavy-duty CI (diesel) engines to reduce harmful exhaust emissions.
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Smart technology: On-board functions allow salting routes to be uploaded directly into the vehicle cockpit, assisting drivers with the latest information on where and when to salt.
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Precision spreading: Latest tech advances enable drivers to choose the most appropriate treatment in different road conditions.
The new depots, which are used as general maintenance depots and offices as well as for winter operations, both boast salt barns capable of holding 3,500 tonnes of salt. Each have three gritters based there, with two carrying out precautionary treatments and the third used during snow.
From Newport, the gritters will salt more than 70 miles of the M62 and A63 from Hull docks in the east to Ferrybridge, West Yorkshire, in the west.
Malton operates two precautionary routes which treat 61 miles of the A64 from near the coast at Scarborough to York.
Across Yorkshire and the North East there are 14 winter maintenance depots, ten in Yorkshire and four in the North East, and 58 gritters treating a total of almost 950 miles of trunk roads and motorways. The region also has four snow blowers.
There are more than 150 qualified winter drivers operating the fleet across the region and last year, from 1 October 2021 to April 2022, the gritters travelled 434,217 miles across Yorkshire and the North East.
All routes are designed to be treated within three hours.
In addition, the region has 48 weather stations that provide real time information about localised road conditions, enabling staff to identify the best time to send the gritters out, working closely with National Highways’ traffic officers, contractors and the emergency services.
Twenty-nine of these stations can be found across Yorkshire and 19 are based in the North East.
THE NATIONAL PICTURE
National Highways has invested £44m over two years replacing 252 gritters. It now has around 530 gritting vehicles which can be out on its roads in sub-zero temperatures helping to maintain the network and enhance its service to customers. This equates to one gritter for every eight miles of road.
The 530 gritters includes 443 Volvo Romaquip gritting vehicles – all of which have been introduced through the replacement programme that started in 2018.
These vehicles are based at 128 depots nationwide with a stockpile of around 280,000 tonnes of salt for the autumn and winter season.
Stephen McKeown, Managing Director at Romaquip, which manufactured and supplied the new gritters, said:
“Romaquip are very proud to deliver this project on time, and especially through all the challenges of a global pandemic. The National Fleet Team at National Highways, headed by Martin Edgecox, has been a pleasure to work with and together we have successfully developed numerous innovations in safety, environment, and operations. Realising these innovations in such a large fleet will result in significant measurable enhancement in winter service in the UK.”
READY FOR AUTUMN AND WINTER SEASONS
Autumn and winter can bring more adverse and severe weather conditions which can affect motorists and these include fog, heavy rain, high winds and gales and ice and snow.
Along with more than 250 weather stations that provide real time information about localised road conditions, National Highways works with independent meteorological experts DTN and Metdesk from October 1 to April 30 to complement the national Met Office weather forecast, providing a level of granularity and precision about changing road surface temperatures across its road network. This gives the detailed knowledge to determine where and when to salt roads so they remain open and safe for people to use.
All of the information gathered helps to inform road users about current road conditions whatever the weather. Information is also shared through channels including the National Highways website and third-party travel providers such as sat nav companies and local radio stations.
Abigail Oakes, Senior Account Manager at the Met Office, said: “We are delighted to continue our close working relationship with National Highways this autumn and winter season.
“Our staff, be that meteorologists embedded alongside the National Highways team in Birmingham during the autumn and winter or Met Office staff working from Exeter to deliver and support throughout the year, are proud to continue this partnership, which allows for the best possible support for road users during periods of severe weather.”
EXPLORE MORE ONLINE
National Highways has lots of advice on its website around travelling in severe weather conditions, including high winds and gales, fog, rain and snow and ice. Visit its travelling in severe weather web page.
Weather forecasts and information can be found on the Met Office website www.metoffice.gov.uk.
Travel information can be found by visiting National Highways’ Travel updates page, by following @HighwaysNEAST and @HighwaysYORKS on Twitter or calling the National Highways Information Line on
0300 123 5000.
