| Winter Treatment |
| Introduction |
| Today's Decision |
| Treatment Priorities |
| Map of Gritted Routes |
| Getting ready for Winter |
| Winter Questionnaire |
South Ayrshire Council Roads Maintenance Customer Services |
Treatment Decisions |
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South Ayrshire Council recognises the importance of maintaining safe road conditions and a system is in place to ensure the safety of the travelling public and pedestrians within the constraints of the available resources. Operations are carried out from Meadowhead Depot at Coylton and Grangestone Depot at Girvan. Salt stocks of around 3,000 tonnes are maintained at each depot; at Meadowhead within a covered salt dome. 10 gritters are based at Meadowhead and 5 at Grangestone. The trained and experienced workforce of around 60 operatives are available on a 24 hour basis and are supplemented where necessary by other Council operatives. The policy adopted by the Council has been widely publicised.
The advertisement and other related documents may be viewed here:
Acrobat Reader® is required to view the PDF files. Each day, at lunchtime, during the winter maintenance period a decision is made regarding the treatment of the Council roads. How is the decision reached?Many factors affect the decision making process, the most important being a detailed weather forecast supplied by the PA Weather Centre. 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 the PA Weather Centre 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:
What does it mean?For treatment purposes, South Ayrshire is subdivided into four areas which are shown on the map below:
[ Back | Today's Decision ] The MeteoGroup 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. The MeteoGroup 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 Weather Centre. The decision is also faxed to Westsound Radio, Strathclyde Police and the Automobile Association. The Trunk RoadsThe Scottish Government is the roads authority for trunk roads
and motorways in Scotland. They have appointed Amey Highways
Ltd as the trunk road operating company for the South West Scotland
Unit. Amey are responsible for carrying out all trunk road maintenance
including winter maintenance on the A77 and A78 trunk roads in
South Ayrshire. [ Back | Today's Decision | Making the Decision | Area Map ] |
The
winter maintenance period is normally defined as between the
1st of October and the 15th of May, although the occurrence of
icy conditions at other times of the year is not unknown.