About gritting

When we grit

Gritters are on part-time standby from October, then 24-hour stand-by from November until April.

Gritters go out when forecasts suggest road temperatures will be at 0 degrees or below and moisture will be present to form ice.

Road temperatures often stay higher than air temperatures because roads retain heat better than air.

Roads do not cool down nearly as quickly as objects such as cars. This means frost on a car can be a misleading guide to whether gritting is needed on the roads.

The science bit

When our gritters have been out salting Nottinghamshire roads, this won't necessarily prevent snow from settling on roads.

When we spread salt on roads it will mix with any moisture and create a saline solution (basically salty water). This has a lower freezing point than water and therefore helps stop ice form on the road, even though the temperature is below the freezing point of water.

The actual freezing point of a saline solution depends on the salinity (strength), and that relates to how much salt we put on to roads or how much residual salt is present on the roads (e.g. from previous gritting runs).

We apply an amount of salt to ensure, as far as possible, that the salinity of any moisture on the roads is sufficient to prevent snow or ice settling. We usually apply 15gms/m2 or 20gms/m2.

At temperatures below minus 5 degrees the effectiveness of the salt is reduced. Therefore there is a chance that ice could form even though we have gritted roads.

Salt will not directly melt snow. It first has to mix with the snow to form a saline solution.

We spread the salt in advance of snow so it can start to mix to create the saline solution, to help to reduce the accumulation of snow and also help to prevent ice forming.

However, in prolonged periods of snowfall, the snow can fall at a rate faster that the salt can mix with the snow. Therefore snow will accumulate no matter what we try and do in advance.

Gritting myths

Myth: Putting grit on the road will melt all ice

Fact: Gritters spreading grit on the road is only the start of the de-icing process. Movement of frit around the road by traffic is essential to complete the process. When traffic levels are low, roads can remain icy for some time.

Vehicles travelling on the roads help the process by breaking down the snow and helping the formation of the saline solution.

So, when you look at a main road and see snow has settled, it does not necessarily mean that the road has not been treated. It simply means the rate of snowfall has been enough for it to accumulate while the salt is still mixing to form a solution.

Gritting updates

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Which roads we grit

When required we grit 1,169 miles of Priority One routes. These include ‘A’ and ‘B’ roads (approximately one-third of the county’s entire road network), strategic routes carrying high traffic flows, main urban distributor roads, and also main bus routes.

This is one-third of the county's entire road network. This amounts to approximately 1,169 miles, like a return journey from County Hall in West Bridgford to John O'Groats.

The overall size of the county council’s gritting network is considered good given the geography of the County and currently, 35% of the network is treated as precautionary measure. This compares with the national recommendation of 24%-38% treated network length.

Each time the lorries go out an,area of 1,050,000 square metres in size is gritted – equivalent to 100 large football pitches. As each gritting run can take over three hours.

Severe weather routes

When severe weather is forecast and resources permit, we also grit:

  • one road to every major settlement
  • some steep residential roads
  • access routes to special educational needs schools (as some of the children get medical care there).

Pedestrian areas

Busy footways in pedestrian areas and town centres are treated when ice or settled snow is likely to persist for more than 24 hours.

Request a new gritting route

In extreme circumstances and following the completion of main and severe weather routes, some additional gritting may take place.

All requests are subject to resources, conditions and local issues.

Other organisations

Some roads in Nottinghamshire are gritted by other organisations:

Salt supplies

We stockpile 17,500 tonnes of salt at the start of winter. The amount of grit we store is more than the amount used in an average winter and 8,500 tonnes more than the nationally recommended stock levels specified in the Code of Practice. The Code recommends that Highway Authorities should hold sufficient salt stocks at the beginning of the winter season to deliver 12 days or 48 gritting ‘runs’, which for Nottinghamshire equates to 10,000 tonnes

We have four salt barns at:

  • Gamston
  • Bilsthorpe
  • Newark
  • Markham Moor

Salt barns protect the salt from clumping together after rain which would make it difficult to spread.

We also have a smaller, open-air storage site at Giltbrook which can store an additional 2,000 tonnes of salt. Giltbrook has approximately 750 tonnes of salt at the start of the season and is used predominantly for treating footways and filling grit bins.

Clearing snow yourself

You can spread grit or even ordinary table salt outside your property and clear snow from the road or pavement.

The government has issued guidance saying it is unlikely that you would be sued or held responsible if someone is injured on a path or pavement if you’ve cleared it carefully.

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