Gritting is to take place on major roads across Surrey ahead of the snowfall forecast this weekend. Surrey Highways have announced on Wednesday (January 1) that their teams will be gritting all of the most important roads in terms of traffic in the county.
Highways said: “We will be gritting all priority one routes across Surrey from 9.30pm tonight (Wednesday January 1). Happy New Year from all at Surrey Highways.”
This announcement comes following the Met Office issuing a 45-hour snow warning for Surrey over the weekend. With forecasters warning that the “heavy snow may cause some disruption”. The yellow warning is in place from midday on Saturday to 9am on Monday, with all of Surrey being placed in the warning zone, including Guildford, Dorking, Woking and Redhill.
The prospect of snow in the coming days has led to a quick response from Surrey Highways who stockpile around 10,000 tonnes of grit to be used when it is assessed that it will be required due to forecasts of low temperatures, icy conditions or snow.
This stockpile of grit will be used on all priority one routes in Surrey, this covers around 1,775 miles of roads which have been identified by Surrey Highways as “the most important roads in terms of the volume of traffic carried”.
Red lines show the prioritised roads for immediate gritting, blue lines are the roads further down the priority list
(Image: SCC Winter Maps)
Priority one roads are the first to be gritted when cold temperatures are forecasted, however should it be assessed that additional roads in Surrey require gritting – Surrey Highways will send out teams to grit those roads too.
Gritting is an important process to ensure road safety for all during cold or freezing temperature, however, according to Surrey County Council: “Gritting does not mean that the road surface will instantly become ice free.”
“Grit works by turning the ice or snow surrounding each grit granule into a saline solution which has a lower freezing point than water.”
This would suggest that the movement of vehicles on gritted roads actually aids in the process of melting the ice on our roads.
You can find Surrey Highway’s online gritting route map here.