Gritters called in to salt county’s icy roads 30 times this winter

Herts County Council’s highways contractor Ringway has 58 gritter crews on stand-by around the clock from the start of October right through to the end of April, ready to cover nearly half of the county’s entire road network.

The area covered is more than 1,500 miles – or the equivalent of salting from Land’s End to John O’Groats and back.

According to the authorityh, Herts’ salt stocks remain high and all of its 1,000 salt bins have been topped-up.

So far, Ringway has used more than 5,000 tonnes of gritting salt on its 30 runs and used more than 5,000 tonnes of gritting salt across the network. They will be out at 8pm tonight.

Terry Douris, county cabinet member for highways and Dacorum borough councillor living in Grovehill, Hemel Hempstead, said: “I joined a gritting crew on a run and must thank the dedicated highways staff who work very unsocial hours – even on Christmas Day – to keep Hertfordshire’s busy roads moving.

“Their skill and care in getting around some of our roads was very impressive. Unfortunately winter weather takes its toll on roads and pavements and severe weather may affect the speed with which faults can be repaired.”

Ringway’s divisional manager Kevin Carrol said: “People are often quite surprised when they find out about the different areas of work carried out by a highways contractor.

“Our staff – working together with staff from the county council – are not only responsible for winter maintenance in the county, but also for a large number of other areas on the public highway including street lights, trees, shrubs, bridges, drains and gullies.”

For advice on staying safe this winter, visit www.hertsdirect.org/salting or to report highway faults go to www.hertsdirect.org/highwayfaults.

To find out when Herts roads are being gritted and to get updates on driving conditions, follow the Twitter hashtag #grittertwitter.