Issued: 26 October 2009
Getting Ready for Winter Roads
With British summertime now officially over Angus Council has set out its plans for keeping roads and footways clear when temperatures drop during the winter months.
The council has responsibility for the maintenance of over 1100 miles of road and associated footways and in an average year spends around £2million dealing with winter weather conditions.
The winter maintenance programme has now been published in leaflets available from council offices, libraries, police stations and some filling stations, as well as online at www.angus.gov.uk/wintermaintenance.
The council's roads spokesperson David May urged the public to play their part in preparing for journeys when bad weather strikes. "It is not possible for the council to keep all roads, even priority routes, free of snow and ice at all times. We can't be everywhere at once and vehicles have to refill and refuel," said councillor May.
"Even when roads have been salted it takes some time for the salt to become effective. Rain and sleet can wash salt from the road leaving it prone to icing again and when it is really cold salt will not stop ice from forming.
"So as temperatures drop the message is always to travel with due care and attention; taking account of the prevailing conditions. Road conditions vary with the weather and can change just as quickly so we should never assume that roads and footways are unaffected by winter conditions."
The council's winter maintenance service covers priority, auxiliary and non-priority carriageways, and priority and non-priority footways.
The priority carriageways and footways, which are generally the busiest routes, will be treated first and given extended winter maintenance coverage.
Auxiliary routes cover roads which are at a higher altitude than the rest of the network and are more prone to icing, but have lighter traffic than priority routes. These routes are treated before the school bus runs from Monday to Friday. Auxiliary routes north of the A926/B957/A90 and the C52 are treated as required on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
Non priority routes are only gritted after priority routes have been satisfactorily treated, Monday to Friday. During prolonged snow conditions, priority and auxiliary routes are cleared before non-priority routes. The 500+ grit bins across the county help people to help themselves during periods of bad weather.
Unadopted roads and footways are the responsibility of individual owners.
The A90 trunk road is maintained by BEAR Scotland Ltd on behalf of the Scottish Government. BEAR also maintains the A92 between Dundee and Arbroath on behalf of Angus Council and Dundee City Council. Both routes receive 24 hour coverage.