Motoring

This winter one of the busiest for Swansea gritting teams say council

Swansea Council’s winter gritting crews have hit the road again this week following a return to frosty conditions across the region.

Published

2 months ago

10th February 2023

Editor

The Council’s gritting teams have been busier than previous years so far this winter, due to a prolonged period of low temperatures and wet weather during December and January.

So far this winter, the Council’s six gritting vehicles have covered a total of 27,500 kilometres during 35 trips around the city.

Each time a decision is made to treat road surfaces, all six vehicles are deployed and travel a total of 450km, taking around 7hrs to complete the work.

A total of 2,200 tonnes of salt has been spread along main roads in the city along with making sure 890 grit bins dotted around communities in the city were filled ahead of the winter period.

Andrew Stevens, Cabinet Member for Environment & Infrastructure, said: “We’ve had months of very low temperatures this winter, requiring our winter gritting teams to be deployed fairly regularly.

“We treat around half of the entire road network in the city. Our main aim is to ensure all main roads in the city are treated so we can keep traffic moving and ensure public transport and emergency vehicles can travel safely.

“All of our communities are provided with grit bins, strategically placed, so that residents can help themselves to salt which they can use to spread on pavements near their homes.

“This week our teams are back out on the road as the temperatures have dropped again.

“They’ve done a great job this winter helping to keep the city moving.”

If you want to find out where one of the 800+ grit bins are located in your community, you can visit the council’s website to check its location and also contact the council if the bin needs refilling.

Cllr Stevens added: “We have more than 800 bins dotted around Swansea. As you can imagine, this take a huge effort to ensure they are all full and we work three to four months in advance of the winter period so we can get around them all.

“If one near you is empty then it’s easy to get in touch and report it so we can go out and refill it.”

(Lead image: Swansea Council)