It’s getting cold outside – so Lincolnshire County Council’s true grit team of seasonal road saviours are primed and ready to roll.

The temperature is starting to drop, winter is tightening its grip on our county and it’s time for the gritting heroes to get out across our huge Lincolnshire road network to make things a lot safer for all of us.

Talk about a massive task to undertake whilst most of us are tucked-up in our beds on dark mornings and evenings.

The unsung highways heroes use a huge fleet of 47 gritters to treat loads of routes across our 5,500 miles Lincolnshire roads network. But they can’t do anything without the right tools – and top of that pile is salt. A massive 30,000 tonnes of the grippy stuff is stored across eight depots in our county and when things really chilly it’s the case that any, or all, of our gritters will be heading out multiple times a day when needed to treat routes we all use.

Our gritters will be ready to go when road surface temperatures drop to around 0.5°C, covering nearly 2,000 miles of highway, including all A and B roads, at least one road into all our main towns and villages, and routes around our bus and train stations, hospitals and schools.

We also provide grit bins for residents to use on public paths and roads.

Darrell Redford, Lincolnshire County Council’s Network Resilience Manager, is the person with the daunting task of looking after the gritter fleet. Part technical marvel, part weather whisperer, he’s the expert on all things gritty and chilling.

He said: “Looking after the roads in severe temperatures is a really complex job but we know what we’re doing and we’re ready to get out to increase grip. Our team is out in all hours to make the roads safer across the colder months.

“Our drivers are very talented at what they do. To back them up we use a host of data and live information to work out when and where to spread the right amount of salt – the men and women of the gritting team, plus that vital information is a combination that’s effective and efficient in keeping roads open in the worst conditions.

“It’s very clear that what we do with our gritting programme is important for everyone on the roads, but a large part of road safety also relies on everyone on the roads to drive in the right way for the conditions. It’s a simple message to all: be safe, be aware and be kind to other road users.”

Data science is the starting point

Gone are the days where it was just local knowledge and a best-guess as to which roads got the salt. Modern techniques gets the right amount of salt to the right places when temperatures plummet.

Darrell adds: “We have a lot of data coming to us all the time. We have our own 12 weather stations in Lincolnshire that we use and we also get information from another eight outside of the county that aren’t ours, but we use them as part of data share with other areas.

“This live reporting is very accurate and really helps us predict what weather fronts are moving across the area. There are two stations in each domain, which are: the Wolds, the Coast, Grantham and Grantham Ridge, Lincoln Ridge and the Fens.”

Whilst some might think that Lincolnshire is fairly flat and consistent in temperature across the county, the reality is that values at ground level can vary wildly. The undulating landscape causes a wide range of temperature values to deal with.

“We see temperatures in the Wolds drop dramatically. They can go down a lot,” adds Darrell: “And across the fens temperatures tends to remain quite high.”

This exact level of critical live information means that the gritting team can be equally as exact about when, and where, they put the salt down. The lower the temperature, the more salt is needed for a specific spreading area.

He continues: “We have something called route-based forecasting where each route has its own forecast, based on the specific domains. This means that we can send out the appropriate gritters for the appropriate areas as needed. That alone save us a lot of money and resource.

“It’s very important that we know what areas are at what temperatures too. When the road temperature is down to -2 we spread 7g of salt per square metre, between -2 and -5 we salt at 12g, at -5 to -10 that figure goes up to 17g of spread and when snow is on the road, or the temperature is lower than -10 then we go to the maximum 20g per square metre. Knowing exactly where, when and how much salt to spread anywhere in the county is an exact science and it saves us a lot of cash.”

Lincolnshire’s Gritter Crew – the stats

• The county has a budget of £1.2m a year for salt. Last year the council spent £1,000,000 on the grippy stuff. The molasses-treated salt that is bought in will last for five years – this lifespan had never been tested though as the salt stored is always used well before the five years is up
• There are 47 Gritters that serve the county – these range from mainly 26-tonne gritters with 10-tonne hoppers,18-tonne lorries with 6-tonne hoppers on the back and smaller 10-tonne versions with a 3-tonne hopper on the back
• Lincolnshire County Council holds 29,200 tonnes of salt in the county’s depots
• On average, Lincolnshire County Council uses 20,000 tonnes of salt a year
• The most salt ever used in one winter was across the 2010/11 ‘Beast from the East’ brutally cold season. That year a massive 38,000 tonnes of salt was put down on the roads
• There are 12 weather stations around the county feeding data back about the weather and road temperatures. Lincolnshire County Council has access to eight others sited with other counties which help to more accurately predict weather systems as they come across the country

Are you winter ready?

• Plan and prepare for severe weather and other risks to Lincolnshire
• Stay up to date with the latest weather reports in your area and subscribe to Met Office weather warnings
• Be in the know with what is happening in your local area around road maintenance and closures

View gritting routes

We grit priority roads when road temperatures drop to around 0.5°C. This includes:

• all A and B roads
• at least one route from each of the county’s main villages
• where possible, at least one road within 500m of all primary and secondary schools
• roads linking all main NHS hospitals, train and bus stations
• additional public service and school bus routes depending on various risk factors, such as historical accident data, pupil numbers and geographical risk factors

During prolonged snowfall, we fit ploughs to our gritters. We may also call upon farmers and contractors to assist with snow clearing.

If you would like to assist, apply to help with snow clearing.

When we grit

From October to April, we work with the Met Office to monitor weather conditions around the clock. Our gritting crews are on-call 24/7.

We grit based on weather forecasts, road surface temperature and dampness, air temperature and humidity.

When we grit (and it’s worth noting that you can’t always see the salt on the road), we try to do so either before the ice has set or once the snow has settled.

Why roads might still be icy (so take care)

This can be because:

• it takes time for the salt to take effect
• high winds or sudden rain can take the salt off the road
• if the road surface temperature drops below -7°C gritting is less effective
• if the road surface temperature drops below -15°C, gritting doesn’t work at all

For updates on our gritting operations, follow @LincsCC_roads on Twitter.

The standards, policies and objectives of winter salting and maintenance of our roads and footways are available in our Winter service plan.