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More on gritting
Footways
Most footways (also known as footpaths and pavements) are
not normally gritted. However, sometimes there is
overspill from the gritting machine that will help to remove
ice from the path. We have also placed 55 salt bins along
key roads which are regularly filled and used by our street
cleansers to grit paths.
We also try to treat locations near schools,
hospitals, railway stations, shopping areas, pedestrian
subways and bridges.
This will only cover a small proportion of the footways across
Redbridge so pedestrians should continue to exercise caution during
these icy conditions.
The Government has introduced a guidance
document (PDF 22kb) for the public for footway snow
clearance.
Also The Direct Government
web has more information on their newsroom pages.
General information
People often wake up to a severe frost, scrape ice off their car
and are then surprised to find that the roads have not been
salted.
This is because action is taken on the road temperature being at
or below freezing rather than the air temperature. Roads retain
heat and do not cool down nearly as quickly as objects such as
cars, therefore frost on a car can be a misleading guide to whether
salting is needed on the road.
Salting is likely when road temperatures are at or
below one degree centigrade, and moisture is present or likely
to be present to form ice.
Frost does not usually affect road surfaces until late evening
or early morning so whenever possible salting is carried out
overnight or in the evening and outside the rush hour traffic
peak.
Winter maintenance service
The Winter Season commences on the 01 November and full standby
arrangements are in place until 30 April. If adverse
conditions occur outside of that period contingency arrangements
are in place to respond accordingly.
The Winter Maintenance Service consists of the following
activities:
- Pre Salting – The spreading of Rock Salt on roads before the
expected formation of ice.
- Post Salting – Treating roads after the ice has formed when the
salt will assist the thawing process.
- Snow Clearing. From roads and main footways.
- Provision of Salt Bins – Strategically placed bins through out
the borough.
About our gritters
Redbridge has a fleet of five gritters immediately available
plus a back up of two further vehicles which can be mobilised at
short notice.
The Council currently has 600 tonnes of grit stockpiled which
will be monitored and replenished when necessary to make sure there
is always enough to cope with heavy snowfall should it continue
longer than expected.
Keep safe whilst driving
On top of what we are doing to keep everyone safe on the roads,
we are urging drivers to use some common sense when driving in bad
weather. When it comes to vehicles the general advice is:
- to keep lights, windows and mirrors clean and free from ice and
snow
- keep the battery fully charged
- check anti-freeze in the radiator and add winter additive to
the windscreen washer bottles
- make sure wipers and lights are in good working order
- check tyres have plenty of tread depth and are maintained at
the correct pressure
- keep a blanket and drinking water in the car
Redbridge news
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