Greener Gritting this winter

Cheshire West and Chester Council's Highways team is winter ready to keep the main road network running during winter. The fleet of 16 gritting trucks, (covering 515 miles of roads, with 70 tonnes of rocksalt for each run) is now running on Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) resulting in in a 90% CO2 saving. In an average winter season of 50 runs this would save 93,831 kg of net CO2.

Primary routes are gritted first including A roads, other main roads and routes used by emergency services. Which explains why the roads in Tarvin are extremely slippery, so do, please take care. Cheshire West and Chester Council do say that in continued bad weather, secondary routes are sometimes gritted if the primary network is fully treated and resources are available.

The grit treatment required is determined by road surface temperature and whether the road is wet or dry – not air temperature. The rock salt, mixes with any moisture to create a saline solution which freezes at a lower temperature than water, so frost and ice doesn't form.

On nights where frost or icy conditions are forecast, the fleet will spread salt to help prevent ice from forming across the Council's highway network. All gritters are equipped with GPS tracking to enable accurate monitoring of which roads have been treated.
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