We receive regular and detailed weather forecasts predicting conditions on Anglesey’s roads and we will normally send out the gritting teams whenever ice formation is forecast. The teams are on stand-by to respond 24 hours a day, seven days a week throughout the winter.
Emergency gritting routes will be implemented during times of emergency when salt becomes rationed by the Welsh Assembly Government. On Anglesey, this is when our stocks fall below 2000 tons.
In an ideal world we would like to grit all of Anglesey’s 1210 Km of roads but this is not possible because of the cost and time it would take.
The main gritting routes include all main A-roads, the majority of B-roads, most bus routes and some other roads which have specific difficulties.
In bad weather conditions gritting teams will try to treat as many minor roads as possible once the main routes have been salted (The Authority’s 2nd and 3rd priority routes).
Second priority gritting routes will only receive attention where adverse weather persists or is expected to persist at noon and where routes have not been treated within the preceding 36 hours.
Third priority routes will receive attention if conditions persist for 48 hours when resources are available.
Please see the Priority Gritting Routes map as a pdf below. These are the priority routes that will be treated and cleared before all other routes.
No. Despite the best efforts of gritting teams our success in tackling ice and snow problems depends on many outside factors.
Although we receive regular and detailed weather forecasts predicting conditions on Anglesey’s roads, ice can form on a road surface before the gritting has been completed. Early morning frost is particularly hard to predict.
Gritting is done when it is not raining to avoid the salt being washed away. If the rainwater freezes quickly, ice can form before gritters have completed their routes. If rain turns to snow during the morning or evening rush hour, it is very difficult to grit roads because of traffic congestion. Rock salt has a limited impact on icy surfaces when temperatures drop below minus 5ºC.
If you leave a vehicle parked on the road, please ensure there is enough width remaining (at least three metres) for the gritting vehicle to get past.
- we grit 371km of the 1212 kilometres of roads in Anglesey, 30% of the network
- during an average winter Anglesey’s roads will be gritted between 30 and 50 times
- we operate 7 front-line gritting vehicles during winter
- there are 12 gritter drivers who work in shifts on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week
- every time the gritting teams go out it takes them around 2.5 hours to salt the main route