Why do you grit?

The County Council's aim is to make the roads in Northumberland as safe as is practical and ensure that you can travel with a minimum of delay and disruption during severe winter weather.

Where to grit?

For treatment of overnight frost a selected network of main and strategic routes are routinely gritted. This network is about 34% of the total road length in the county. It is such that in the rural areas residents in small villages (defined as having a population greater than 100) should not have more than five miles to travel before reaching a treated road. In urban areas (defined as settlements with a population greater than 1000) the distance to travel to reach a treated road should not be more than one mile. In addition principal bus routes and distributor roads with steep downhill approaches to the junction with main roads are treated.

In conditions of widespread icing when freezing is expected to continue through the day and in light snow falls, in addition to roads routinely gritted identified second priority roads will be gritted. These include accesses to communities where there are no alternative gritted roads, important bus routes and urban distributor roads.

Please remember that all roads are not routinely gritted and local extreme weather conditions may mean that parts of the road network are not treated as normal. Despite our best efforts even on gritted roads on occasions ice may reform.

The County Council publish a Roadcare leaflet "Highways in Winter" which includes maps showing the roads routinely gritted. You can request a copy by contacting us or download an electronic copy by following the link to the right of this page.

When do you grit?

We base our decisions on when to grit on:

• Daily specialised winter forecasts from the Met Office
• Information from the road condition sensor sites in and adjacent to Northumberland
• Local knowledge and experience
• Gritting the routinely treated network normally takes about 3 hours and the aim on weekday mornings is to complete this by 8.00am.

What is the grit used?

Although the term "grit" is used, the actual material used in the treatment of snow and ice is rock salt. This actually melts the snow and ice which grit does not do.

The use of rock salt is the most effective treatment means of treating ice and snow on highways. However it does have some environmental disadvantages in that it accelerates corrosion of metal and at strong concentrations can affect plant life and water courses. In view of this, rates of spread are chosen to be the minimum which will achieve, in the prevailing conditions, the objectives of melting the ice and snow and cause as little environmental damage as possible.

In a drier state salt can be spread at lower rates then damp salt, but without loss of effectiveness on the road surface. In order to assist preventing salt in stockpiles from becoming damp and to enable the use of lower spread rates, the County Council has a programme of constructing covered storage (called barns) at the main depots. To date barns have been provided at Berwick, Alnwick, Bearl and Haltwhistle depots. Trials are also underway in the county to assess the use of additives which are available to enhance the effectiveness of the salt on the road surface.

Do you provide grit bins?

Grit bins are provided at selected steep hills and sharp bends particularly those which are exposed sites where routine gritting is not undertaken.

Requests for the provision of grit bins will be assessed against justification criteria which limit them to areas where they are most needed. Please contact us to request a Grit Bin.

Grit bins provided will be filled prior to the start of the winter and replenished as necessary. Bins will be left in place throughout the year except at locations of particular sensitivity. Damaged bins will be replaced as and when required.

Currently over 750 bins are located throughout the County.

In rural areas grit heaps may be placed on the highway verges on steep hills.

Are pedestrians routes gritted?

Following normal overnight frost footways will not be treated apart from those designated as being of exceptional difficulty by virtue of a steep gradient, higher risk of ice formation and a high early morning pedestrian movement.

In continuing severe weather conditions gritting will be progressively extended, as resources become available, to main footways in town centres, busy urban shopping areas, other important pedestrian links and footpaths adjacent to large schools.

For more information please download our Winter Services Policy

Can Customers buy Grit from the County council?

No, customers cannot buy salt from the County Council.

The bulk salt supplies that the County Council buy have to be fully utilised on the transport network, particularly given the current national salt shortage, and can therefore not be provided to private individuals. Supplies of salt can be obtained from builders merchants and other outlets.