We were prepared for big freeze, says roads boss

Jan 14 2010 by Alistair Watson, West Lothian Courier

WEST Lothian Council’s roads operation manager says the local authority did everything it could to prepare for the big freeze that has gripped the county.

Andy Johnston, who has worked in the winter maintenance unit for 20 years, says the wintry conditions are the worst he has ever experienced.

The council has already used more than 12,500 tonnes of salt on its 600 miles of major roads as it aims to keep the county moving — a huge increase on what it would expect to use in a normal winter.

Last week the council announced its supplies of grit were down to a critical level but Mr Johnston says he has enough to keep the major routes clear.

“I wouldn’t describe the situation with salt as critical. I’ve got enough to see me through the next week and then we have orders coming in,” he said.

“What I do have to do is prioritise it for the major roads.

“We are bringing in what I call wind dust. It is a quarried material, basically a stone that has been crushed down so it can be spread by the gritters.

“We will be using that to fill the grit bins. It does not melt the snow but it will provide traction for vehicles.

“This will be used in residential areas and secondary roads.”

Mr Johnston added: “We use about 150 tonnes of grit a day in normal conditions and around 300 in snow conditions. We can mix it 50/50 with the wind dust and we have done that in the last few days.

“What people don’t understand is that when it gets to minus nine and below the grit does not have an impact on the ice.

“We usually get through nine to 10,000 tonnes of salt in a normal winter. So far we have spread about 12,500 tonnes. We’ve used a whole winter’s supply in just three weeks.

“It was not forecast by the Met Office to last this long at first. In terms of preparation we did everything we could do.”

Last week fed-up residents in the area set up a facebook group calling for more gritted streets and filled grit bins.

The group has attracted nearly 3000 members, many of whom are frustrated with what they perceive to be the council’s lack of gritting service in residential areas.

Andy said the slowdown in snowfall over the past few days has meant more resources could be directed to housing schemes.

He added: “I can fully understand their frustrations but they have to understand the efforts these guys have made.

“We had people on a stand-by rota, and anyone on it had all their holidays cancelled and they have been working round the clock, including Christmas day and New Year’s day. They have given up the festive period with their families.

“The major problem was that every time it was cleared more snow would fall and it had to be cleared again.

“We now have extra resources from the private sector, including 40 JCBs and additional hand crews. They are going into residential areas and removing the snow.

“The hand crews are then going in at the back of them and hand-gritting the area with wind dust. The grit bins will be filled as soon as we can.

“There are 100 road staff involved in the winter maintenance and we also got staff from street cleansing and building services. These are people who cannot go out and do their day-to-day jobs.

“So there are around 160 people on any given day, and there is probably another 70 to 80 people from the private sector on top of that.

“We have got to monitor the budget and we are looking at things on a daily basis in regards to our costs. But there are cash reserves to deal with emergencies like this.

“The chief executive has not put any limit on what I can do in terms of winter maintenance but that may change if it goes on for weeks and weeks.”