Winter Maintenance
Our experience of operating winter maintenance services is
founded on the various contracts we operate throughout the
and takes into account a wide range of climatic domains from high
level trans-Pennine routes to low level urban coastal regions.
Through our MAC contracts we are responsible for ensuring the
availability of 33% of the trunk road and motorway network. We also
undertake the winter maintenance responsibilities for our
maintenance contracts in Devon, and the Wirral.
Recent winters saw the most prolonged period of sub-zero
temperatures and heavy snow for 30 years and placed an
unprecedented demand on our operations to keep the designated roads
accessible. Despite the severe weather we have demonstrated
exceptional levels of planning and subsequent delivery of winter
response.
For each maintenance contract we produce a Winter Operational
Plan that describes in detail how we plan, manage and co-ordinate
the winter maintenance service. The plans are reviewed annually to
identify potential improvements to the service. In planning and
providing our winter and emergency services we aim to keep the road
network safe and address the needs of the public, road users and
local communities through:
- Established good working practices
- Good communications and co-operation
- Trained personnel
- Reliable vehicles and equipment
- Provision of standby additional resources and salt rock
