Gritters travel distance twice around the Earth’s equator

Since October last year, the council has been busy with winter operations. The eventful season began with unprecedented levels of rainfall in the autumn, followed by icy conditions during the winter and hundreds of trees blown over by Storm Bert and Storm Darragh.  

Highways teams are currently dealing with critical road repairs due to the impact of the winter weather. The council has been testing methods to speed up and improve the durability of repairs. Find and Fix teams have been deployed to carry out proactive repairs and fix smaller potholes ahead of schedule before they develop into safety issues. As a result of this investment, we're on track to carry out a record-breaking 90,000 minor road repairs, including pothole repairs, during this financial year. We are also pushing on with an extensive resurfacing programme. 

A roundup of the season so far, in numbers:

• 197 journeys by gritting vehicles on routes covering key public transport routes and access to emergency service stations.   
  
  
• 106,705km total distance driven by gritting vehicles across the county. That’s the equivalent of more than twice around the Earth’s equator (a climate our gritter drivers may prefer).
  
  
• 5,340 salt bins checked and topped up where necessary.
  
  
• 10,950 tonnes of salt used for gritting - enough to fill more than 100 million kitchen table salt shakers.
  
  
• 57 deliveries of rock salt to council highways depots.  

Cllr Stephen Davies, Leader of Gloucestershire County Council said: “We’ve resurfaced more than 100 miles of the county’s roads and our resurfacing programme accelerates through the spring. Highways teams work around the clock to grit the roads, clear drains, make critical repairs following the winter weather and create better journeys for everyone in Gloucestershire, and I would like to thank them for their dedication.”