Archived decisions

Hampshire County Council

Environment and Transportation Select Committee Item 7

24 March 2009

Winter Emergency

Question

A report on how, and with what success, Hampshire managed the road network during the recent prolonged spell of cold weather in December/ January/February, particularly during the snow in January/February.

Response

1. Background

The Council is responsible for approximately 8,500 kilometres of roads and has a statutory duty to ensure that the roads and footways are free from ice and snow during wintry conditions. Whilst this is an absolute duty on the authority, the legislation recognises that there is an assumption of reasonableness and that ice and snow cannot be immediately cleared from all surfaces. Councils are required therefore to have a sensible regime of winter maintenance treatment that deals with ice prevention and snow conditions in a systematic and timely way.

2 Hampshire's Winter Maintenance Policy and Operation

The Council has adopted a system of priority routes for winter maintenance treatment. These routes are based on traffic usage, on accessibility and safety. The routes are also based on the operational logistics of treating the network in a timely fashion. The policy is aligned with the national standard `Code of Practice for Well Maintained Highways' and accords with the guidance issued by the National Audit Office.

The Priority Treatment in Hampshire is as follows:

Priority 1 - Approximately 26% of the network

· Main Traffic Routes (`A' Class principal roads)

· Main access routes to important industrial and large educational establishments (500+ pupils or workers)

· Main access routes to major accident and emergency hospitals, and important emergency service locations

· Roads used as major bus routes (50 day urban, 25 day rural)

· Roads passing through major shopping centres

· Other routes busy during peak traffic periods

Priority 2 - Approximately 30% of the network

· Single access routes to villages

· Roads near other schools

· Roads used as other bus routes

· Roads to other hospitals

· Roads to minor fire and ambulance establishments

· Roads passing through other shopping centres

· Major pedestrian precincts and pedestrianised areas

· Routes with gradients that make driving hazardous

Priority 3

· All other routes not covered by the above

Spot Salting

Spot salting is a non routine activity carried out after the treatment of Priority 1 treatment where there have been reported localised problems usually from the police, staff scouting or responses from members of the public.

Salt Bins

Salt bins are provided at locations that are not routinely treated and at places where pedestrians or the public may need assistance, such as steep inclines, ramps or steps. The salt bins provide self-help for local communities. There are over 2,000 salt bins in the county which are usually provided by the local community and the County Council provides the salt for spreading.

Timing of treatment arrangements for Frost, Ice and Snow

Priority 1 routes - to be treated in advance of any forecast frost, ice or snow.

Priority 2 routes - to be treated only when there is prolonged and persistent frost, ice or snow which is expected to continue, or following snow

Priority 3 routes - to be treated following significant snowfall but only not until the priority 1 and 2 routes have been successfully cleared.

The Winter Maintenance Operation:

Winter maintenance is undertaken by the term highways contractor Amey; to carry out the operation on the 2,600 kilometres Priority 1 network, 45 salting routes and salting vehicles (gritters) are used. In addition there are 6 gritting vehicles that undertake localised spot salting. The operation requires a minimum of 90 drivers and these are drawn from the Amey workforce (250 staff +) that undertake the everyday road maintenance activities. In other words resources are from the road gangs and at times of weather emergencies normal maintenance activities (apart from emergencies) cease.

At times of weather emergencies the resources are supplemented by deploying farmers using snow ploughs based on a retainer system (120 approximately) and other local resources from local authorities and contractors for activities such, as footway clearance.

Winter Maintenance Funding

Because each winter varies the budget arrangement is based on a four year rolling average expenditure so any significant peaks and troughs are evened out over time and this ensures a controlled but unrestrained budget to deal with any prevailing winter conditions. The current winter maintenance rolling average budget is £3,500,000 per annum.

Salt Stocks and treatment

The Council has a managed salt stock capacity of 12,500 tonnes which is all stored in dry barn conditions. The stocks are replenished by the contractor at defined trigger levels to ensure that the treatment operation is not compromised. The stocks are sufficient for a 10 day period of continuous weather emergency or 40 days of routine treatment. The salt stocks level is based on an assessment of winters over the last 25 years.

In an `average' winter it is expected that there would be between 50-55 county-wide salting runs (slightly less in south Hampshire because of a warmer micro climate). The winter maintenance season is some 200 days per annum.

There are a range of salting treatments to maximise the de-icing effectiveness. Wetted salt is primarily used to deal with normal ice conditions, whilst dry salt is used to deal with severe hoar frosts and snow conditions. The spread rate of the salt varies according to conditions but effectively each gritter has a 5 tonne payload which is sufficient for a 60 kilometres route taking between 2 and 2.5 hours to complete.

3. The Winter of 2008/09

The weather patterns in the UK changed from normal patterns this winter with prolonged colder periods due to a shift in the jet stream with easterly winds predominating. An extended cold period lasting 15 days prevailed in December and into January 2009, generating significant hoar frosts which required continuous treatment throughout this period. By Christmas 2008, three months into the winter the level of salt treatment and salt usage was already equivalent to an `average' winter. This event meant that all authorities in the UK, including Hampshire, had dipped heavily into their salt stocks and national salt suppliers were struggling to keep up with demand.

Severe wintry weather enveloped the whole of the UK from 31 January 2009 until 9 February 2009.

The event was well forecast in advance and this enabled us to treat the Priority 1 network repeatedly (three county-wide runs) in advance of the predicted snow, and winter maintenance teams were working in shifts around the clock with continuous running. Advance treatment needs to be correctly timed because salt has a limited reactive life for de-icing and rainfall can wash and dilute the saline solution. The strategy was to focus clearance of the Priority 1 routes and then commence treatment on the other priority routes. The spot salting vehicles and extra crews with standard transport were deployed to treat other problem locations and footways.

It was planned that during the first day of the snow the Priority 1 routes would be brought under control to enable the Priority 2 routes to be treated. There is always uncertainty regarding weather events and snow was more severe than predicted, particularly north of Winchester with accumulations of up to 300 millimetres. This meant that the Priority 1 routes needed continuous treatment with ploughing on Monday, 1 February and it was late afternoon before they were sufficiently clear for traffic to use. It was planned to commence treatment on the Priority 2 routes on day two of the snow event but further snow falls and severe ice overnight meant that the Priority 1 routes needed to remain the focus of effort. During this time more resources were deployed on spot salting and treating the footway network across the county and attending to the grit bins used for self help.

Attendance at the weather emergency centre at Police Headquarters also assisted the coordination of clearance at specific locations at the direction of emergency services, including adult services.

Priority 2 treatment and other route clearance commenced on Wednesday, 3 February and continued on a priority basis until the thaw set in and conditions improved. The treatment continued until the Monday of the following week with some snow still evident on quieter parts of the network in the north of Hampshire.

On Monday, 9 February Hampshire suffered from severe coastal, fluvial and surface water flooding and resources were deployed to attend to this additional problem.

The impact of the weather has been very detrimental to the condition of the road surfaces and significant remedial measures are required to restore the network and these are currently underway and being planned.

Salt Stocks

It has been widely reported that there was a national shortage of salt during this period and this is the case. The snow and ice event was unusual in that it was country-wide and this caused an increase in the demand for salt. Usually these events are localised to certain parts of the country. The unprecedented demand for salt did cause supply and delivery shortages and national prioritisation of the available supplies to authorities was instituted.

Whilst the County's salt stocks were depleted due to the unprecedented weather, the stocks were sufficient to treat the network throughout the period. We were also able to assist neighbouring authorities who had run critically low of salt and these included Wiltshire County Council, the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead and West Sussex County Council. Hampshire was one of the few authorities in the UK to provide this mutual aid and those benefiting have expressed their gratitude.

The amount of salt used during this period exceeds 6,000 tonnes and the cost is of the order of £750,000 meaning that the winter cost overall will exceed the winter rolling average of £3,500,000 by a considerable sum and is likely to be some £4,000,000.

4. Conclusions and Lessons Learnt

This winter is the most severe in Hampshire since 1986 and is therefore is an exceptional event. It is not practical or economic to routinely resource for such an exceptional winter and in the circumstances the County's strategy and resources were sufficiently robust to manage the conditions to make the network available in the quickest time possible. It is acknowledged that many people living on estate roads would have wished for treatment sooner but it would not have been viable logistically to provide the resources and manpower to attend to these parts more quickly.

There are clearly some local lessons to be learnt from the event and a full review will take place and the salt stock strategy and supplier position will be examined. The provision of salt bins and adequacy of replenishment and partnership with Parish and District colleagues and self-help arrangements will be investigated further to see what improvements can be made.

The Secretary of State for Transport has requested that the UK Roads Liaison Group undertakes an investigation and review of the winter operation and look to see what lessons can be learnt from this years experience across the UK. The impact of climate change will be assessed alongside assessment of recent winter trends.