Perth and Kinross Council snow crews show true grit

Jan 8 2010 Perthshire Advertiser Friday

BATTLING to keep Perthshire’s priority roads clear of snow and ice is proving a “logistical nightmare”, contractors admitted yesterday.

Responding to a rising tide of public anger over a perceived lack of gritters on Big County streets, Perth and Kinross Council area roads engineer Douglas Kent said the past two weeks had been “very challenging”.

The roads expert spoke out as the PA joined an early morning gritting crew on one of East Perthshire’s most treacherous rural routes.

“Our road network covers 2600km, and we focus on 900km of the council’s priority networks – main roads and access to hospitals and fire stations – that’s the basic network,” Mr Kent explained.

“Once we get these done, then we move onto the lower priority roads, but the problem is that the snow is continuing over such a widespread area, then freezing, so it’s really been a logistical nightmare.”

This has been compounded by the fact that weather forecasts are not, as the roads expert puts it, an “exact science”.

Mr Kent said further headaches have been caused by rain falling on freezing roads and creating a resilient, slippery glaze.

In extreme cases gritter drivers have been forced to manually lay grit in front of their trucks to get traction, and the 50/50 mix of salt and sand is less effective below -5C.

Gritters have operated from 5am to 9pm, carrying out “pre-grits” on priority roads to combat freezing, overnight temperatures.

During an average winter the council uses 17,000 tonnes of grit and normally around 7,500 tonnes by early January.

“But so far we’ve used 13,500 tonnes, almost double, so we’re very conscious of this fact and are conserving supplies as much as we can,” said Mr Kent.

“For example, while we grit footpaths on both sides of main shopping streets, we try to grit footways on one side of a street in outlying areas routinely.

“Some people may have to cross the street to use the footpath but this enables us to cover a wider area.

“We also have an issue with gritters getting into cul-de-sacs due to parked cars blocking access, plus of course there’s the risk of the gritter sliding into parked cars.”

Mr Kent said driving in treacherous conditions could be just as hazardous for gritter drivers, as the dramatic case of a gritter flipping near Bankfoot last week had demonstrated.

While the driver escaped uninjured, the gritter was a write-off.

In extreme conditions, gritters’ wiper arms struggle to cope with dense snow, and in worst-case scenarios the linkages can snap.

The PA drove the A93 on Wednesday to rendezvous with gritter driver Alan Findlay, who was working on a back road near Kirkmichael.

Mr Findlay said the B950 had been completely closed earlier that morning due to hard-packed snow.

“The wind in open areas like this is the main problem,” he said.

“It blows snow from the fields and covers the roads and it’s still only -3C so there’s not enough heat in the air to melt it.”

Mr Findlay said he had worked a gruelling 60 to 70 hours over New Year, from 5am to 2pm or 3pm, then back out at 5pm to pre-grit, finishing at 9pm.

“I was in my bed at 10.30pm on Hogmanay and I only had one bottle of beer over the whole festive season, and an awful lot of takeaway meals!” he said.

Although the worst of the big freeze may well be over, Mr Kent warned that another nightmare could soon be on the horizon.

“If there’s a sudden thaw then we could be looking at widespread flooding,” he said.