The links below provide advice and information about the service provided to maintain the highway network during bad weather.
Winter maintenance priorities
Wigan Council regards public safety extremely highly and grits all the main roads, including principal bus routes and routes for the emergency services. Priority is given to maintaining safe driving conditions on those most frequently used routes. It would be prohibitively expensive to treat every side street and minor road. We provide grit boxes on a self-help basis for some steep minor roads.
About 20% of the road network carries 80% of the traffic, and Wigan Council will grit to prevent ice from forming on the borough's main road network every night when icy conditions are forecast. The Highways Agency has responsibility for the M6 motorway running through the borough.
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How we provide the service
Our aim is to ensure that grit is spread on the highway before ice forms. We achieve this by using a fleet of gritters. We also remove the accumulation of snow by ploughing when required. In recent winters we have spent an average of £550,000 each year on winter highway maintenance.
Wigan Council has a direct link to the Meteorological Office, updated every 20 minutes, and the Authority has its own sensor to measure road surface temperature located on the East Lancashire Road. Thermal mapping computer software can then calculate the likely temperature on other routes. Computers transfer this information to those responsible for operating the winter maintenance service.
Council staff are on call 24 hours a day to make the decision to grit. Any assessment will hold the safety of the public as priority and is often actioned before any snow fall or ice formation because this is the best time to grit. Operatives are in place and the fleet is on the road within an hour of the decision.
Rock salt is used for gritting. It works by turning the snow or ice around each granule into a solution. Traffic movement is vital for salting to be effective, as it breaks down the salt granules to form a saline solution to either prevent ice from forming or to melt it.
Public safety is priority. There is a budget for gritting and we're not afraid to use it!
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Target times
Our target response time between a decision being taken to begin gritting and vehicles leaving the depot is one hour.
Our target treatment time between vehicles leaving the depot and the completion of gritting on all priority routes is two hours. However, this can vary depending on weather conditions.
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Some difficulties
Even with the most accurate and up to date weather forecast, occasionally it is impossible to grit:
- Gritting during heavy rain is usually ineffective, as it is washed away. Temperatures may fall by as much 5°c each hour and wet roads can freeze before the gritter can salt them. However, roads are on the whole gritted prior to the formation of ice.
- If during the rush hour, rain turns to snow, immediate gritting cannot take place since it would be washed away and gritters cannot make progress in heavy traffic.
- Dawn frost can occur on dry roads, when early morning dew falls on a cold road and freezes on impact. It is impossible to accurately forecast where and when it may occur.
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How you can help
The Council regards public safety as its priority and operates its gritting service to the highest standards. The public can play its part as well:
- Always ask yourself whether your journey is essential? Does someone else know your planned route and estimated time of arrival?
- Give yourself time, both to make sure your vehicle is safe and has enough petrol and washer water before starting out, and in case you are delayed by the weather or heavy traffic.
- Never set off until your heater has de-misted the windscreen.
- Keep a de-icer spray in the vehicle. If required, use it - but first find a safe place to stop. Also, why not prepare for winter driving with a torch, mobile phone, wellingtons, warm clothing and, for longer journeys, a shovel and a hot flask.
- Accelerate and brake more gently when in wet or icy conditions. Break before reaching a bend, not on it.
- Use dipped headlights in mist, heavy rain, fog or falling snow.
- Use rear fog lights in fog, mist or falling snow, but not in rain. Remember to switch them off as soon as conditions allow.
- Slow down and be aware of vulnerable road users such as cyclists and pedestrians.
- Even gritted roads can be dangerous: salt takes time to work and in severe weather salt will not stop all ice - please drive carefully!
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