Price of salt to grit Dorset's roads rises by more than 50%
Gritting teams are now on standby for 24 hours in day in case temperatures plummet
Dorset Council crews are now on-call 24 hours a day until the end of March, ready to grit Dorset’s roads so drivers can keep travelling.
12,700 tonnes of rock salt have been stocked up in the council’s depots, and lorries are ready for action.
Up to 22 main gritting routes (known as the precautionary gritting network) are treated by Dorset Council’s Highways Service when road surface temperatures are predicted to drop below one degree Celsius. These are roads used by the majority of the travelling public – covering 684 miles of the Dorset Council network.
The precautionary gritting network includes all A, B and well-used C class roads as well as:
• links to hospitals, large industrial estates, transport interchanges, emergency services stations (including manned Coastguard and RNLI) and identified critical infrastructure
• routes to all urban schools with more than 500 pupils and rural schools with more than 350 pupils
• primary bus routes with a substantial frequency
• main routes through towns and villages with populations of more than 750
The council uses a system called route-based weather forecasting to help it plan which roads need to be gritted. Instead of a blanket approach to gritting, it targets the roads based on localised temperatures.
Dorset Council say this is better for the environment with less salt used and fewer lorry movements causing emissions. The price of salt has risen by more than 50% this year.
Cllr Ray Bryan, Portfolio Holder for Highways, Travel and Environment, said: ‘Our highways team provides a vital job keeping residents, businesses and emergency services moving and as safe as possible every winter.
“And our route-based forecasting system helps make sure the network is gritted exactly where it is needed, which is better for the council’s budget and for the planet.
“If you find yourself behind a gritting vehicle, please be patient and please take care on freshly gritted roads - fresh salt only becomes ‘active’ after it has been worked into a solution by tyres travelling over it and drive to the conditions this winter.”
Facts and figures
During the 2021/22 season, there were 66 days of action, with gritters called out 81 times. In total, there were 1,191 individual route treatments, using 3,701 tonnes of salt.
January 2022 was the busiest month for gritter drivers, when they were called out on 23 days, with 1,404 tonnes of salt used.
Route-based forecasting uses weather forecasting information from DTN Roadmaster, which includes data from the council’s 11 roadside weather stations, individual decisions will be made for each of the 22 routes in the Dorset Council area.