Winter Roads Maintenance
Gritting operations
Operations are carried out from
Meadowhead in Coylton and
Grangestone Industrial Estate in Girvan. Salt stocks of around 5,500
tonnes are maintained; at Meadowhead within a covered salt dome. 9 carriageway gritters
/ 2 footway gritters are based at Meadowhead and 5 carriageway gritters / 1 footway
gritter at Grangestone. The trained and experienced workforce of around 40 operatives
are available on a 24 hour basis and are supplemented where necessary by other Council
operatives and external Contractors.
How is the decision reached?
Many factors affect the decision making process, the most important being a detailed
weather forecast supplied by the
MeteoGroup UK. This forecast is emailed to appropriate Council Officers
at lunchtime. Updates are also emailed or phoned as necessary on a 24 hour basis.
Automatic weather monitoring stations located on the roads within South Ayrshire
record all aspects of conditions throughout the day. This information is analysed
by MeteoGroup UK
who use it both to help with the preparation of their forecasts and to check the
accuracy of previous forecasts. Council officers also consult the data from the
weather stations.
The following is a list of the main factors considered:
- MeteoGroup Weather
Forecast
- Road Conditions
- Anticipated Road Temperature
- Assessment of road moisture present
- Confidence of weather forecast
- Temperature rising or falling
- Assessment of residual salt on roads
- Action taken in the last 24 hours
What does it mean?
For treatment purposes, South Ayrshire is subdivided into four areas which are shown
on the map below:
MeteoGroup UK supply
a forecast for each area and a treatment decision will be made for each area by
experienced personnel.
Should icy roads be expected, then an instruction will be issued to treat the roads
with salt. Different spreading rates may be used depending on the severity of the
anticipated conditions. The rate will normally be 10 or 20 grams per square metre
but may be increased to 40 grams per square metre in certain circumstances. A spread
of 10 grams per square metre is not immediately obvious to the naked eye.
A time is given for commencement of the salt spreading operation. Salting is normally
completed within 3 hours of this time. The time will depend on the anticipated time
of freezing and the expected cessation time of any forecast rain prior to the freezing
time.
If significant snow is expected then an instruction to fit snowploughs will be included.
The decision shown on this website is made at lunchtime each day to allow adequate
preparation time for the salting operation. MeteoGroup UK will inform Council officers of any
changes to their forecast and the actual treatment may be revised.
The decision is communicated to neighbouring authorities mainly through the MeteoGroup
UK website. The decision is also emailed
Westsound Radio,
Police Scotland and the Automobile
Association.
The Trunk Roads
Transport Scotland, as agency of the Scottish Government, is responsible for maintaining
trunk roads and motorways in Scotland. They have appointed Scotland TranServ as the trunk
road operating company for the South West Scotland Unit. Scotland TranServ is responsible
for carrying out all trunk road maintenance including winter maintenance on the
A77 and A78 trunk roads in South Ayrshire.
The contact number for all trunk road maintenance activities is 0141 218 3800 or
Scotland TranServ.
Related information