Winter maintenance teams in operation as cold spell continues

Our winter maintenance teams have been out every day over the last week and will remain out treating the local road network and pavements.

We have used more over 1230 tonnes of salt on roads and pavements since last Wednesday.

Did you know the adopted road network in East Lothian is over 1050km and the footways is approximately 480km?

Each year this is increasing and with limited resources it is recognised that a priority treatment system is required. For roads we initially treat our priority 1 primary salting routes - which accounts for approximately 52% of our roads.

The primary salting road network is made up of the major routes where the majority of vehicle movements take place and also includes accesses to hospitals, ambulance stations, fire stations, other emergency service establishments, railway stations and schools. Where possible, we treat primary roads before ice forms. When it snows, these important routes are treated first.

Once primary routes have been completed, we then treat priority 2, secondary routes and finally what are classed as priority 3 tertiary and minor routes, such as those in housing estates. In severe conditions over long periods all the available resources will be focused on keeping the primary routes cleared.

Footways follow a priority system for footway treatment - footways within main towns are our first priority and then we move onto other areas.

Spreading salt is only the start of the de-icing process. It needs movement and crushing by traffic/pedestrians for it to start being effective. When traffic/footfall volumes are low, roads/pavements can remain icy for some time often until there is a significant traffic/pedestrian flow, so please take care. In addition temperatures being below freezing will make untreated roads/footways extremely icy, so you should avoid these if you can.

You can find a list of the routes we grit first on our priority roads pages here: https://orlo.uk/qBI1T