Council says it is well prepared for winter road conditions
SHETLAND Islands Council (SIC) is confident it has enough road salt to last the winter after an Arctic blast of snow last week.
Roads manager Neil Hutcheson praised the council’s gritter crews after a full-on week that saw them tasked with clearing roads of lying snow all over the isles.
Hutcheson said the gritter crews were “busy for most of the week, from the Sunday to the following Saturday” after the first dump of snow this winter.
Roads in the North Mainland and the isles were particularly bad at the start of last week, with Hutcheson saying the West Mainland was worst affected mid-week.
“The main issue was clearing the snow that had fallen overnight from the priority one and two roads before they moved onto the side roads,” he said.
“Fortunately there was little in the way of drifting snow so the majority of roads were passable with care once they had been ploughed and gritted.”
The roads manager said he was confident the SIC was well prepared for whatever comes Shetland’s way this winter.
“We received a shipment of 6,400 tonnes of road salt from Northern Ireland at the end of August,” Hutcheson said.
“This brought our stocks up to 11,000 tonnes prior to the onset of winter, more than enough for all but the most severe winters.
“Stock levels are monitored throughout the winter and if they are approaching only 3,000 tonnes we will arrange a further shipment.
“Given that this would generally be later in the season this shipment will often be shared with Orkney or the Western Isles.”
The roads could be gritted on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day this year, after councillors agreed to introduce proactive gritting of the priority one roads on these public holidays – if weather conditions require it.
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The decision to introduce some gritting on 25 December and 1 January is to improve safety for the increased number of road users travelling on these days.
It came after concerns were raised last year, with ice causing a number of accidents around the isles in the Christmas period.
A gritting crew will also be on standby, as always, in each area of Shetland to respond to emergencies.
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