THOUSANDS of tonnes of salt are stocked and crews are on-call ready to grit Dorset’s roads so drivers can keep travelling this winter.

Dorset Council says it highways crews are on-call 24 hours a day from the start of November to the end of March as temperatures begin to drop.

12,700 tonnes of rock salt have been stored in the council’s depots to serve up to 22 main gritting routes treated by Dorset Council’s Highways Service.

These are the roads used by the majority of the travelling public – covering 684 miles of the Dorset Council network.

The precautionary gritting network includes all A, B and well-used C class roads, as well as links to:

  • Hospitals
  • Large industrial estates
  • Transport interchanges
  • Emergency services stations
  • Critical infrastructure routes to all urban schools with more than 500 pupils and rural schools with more than 350 pupils
  • Primary bus routes
  • Main routes through towns and villages with populations of more than 750

The council uses a system called route-based weather forecasting to help it plan which roads need to be gritted. Instead of a blanket approach to gritting, it targets the roads based on localised temperatures.

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Cllr Ray Bryan, member for highways, travel and environment, said: “Our highways team provides a vital job keeping residents, businesses and emergency services moving and as safe as possible every winter.

“And our route-based forecasting system helps make sure the network is gritted exactly where it is needed, which is better for the council’s budget and for the planet.

“If you find yourself behind a gritting vehicle, please be patient and please take care on freshly gritted roads.”

Dorset Highways also carries out gritting on the A35 trunk road between Bere Regis and Charmouth on behalf of National Highways.

During the 2021/22 season, there were 66 days of action, with gritters called out 81 times. In total, there were 1,191 individual route treatments, using 3,701 tonnes of salt.

January this year was the busiest month for gritter drivers, when they were called out on 23 days with 1,404 tonnes of salt used.