Highways Adverse Weather & Winter Service Plan

Resource Management

The operational response to weather events is managed proportionally in response to the expected severity of the event and the likely risks the event will present. Where an event is severe or is expected to be prolonged it may be necessary to focus resources towards key areas of risk and operational decisions will need to be made on this basis.

As an example, this has previously been the case with severe winter weather where due to limitations of salt supplier or gritter drivers it became necessary to reduce the normal winter treatment network to a Resilient Network of routes which focused on maintaining the key strategic roads only. Alternatively, during a prolonged period of snowfall in 2018, having ensured the Primary Network was satisfactorily treated, it was possible to treat a number of minor roads which provided access to the more isolated villages.

During periods of high demand, including adverse weather events, resources are managed and additional resources may be deployed in proportion to the risk presented or forecast. This is generally agreed in advance with Senior Managers following official Weather and Flood warnings. Typically this will involve having additional highway operatives on stand-by and ready to deal with the impacts of a weather event and this response is scaled in accordance with the risk.

Where the risk is significant additional external resources may also be engaged to assist highway teams through commercial contracts for services such as high pressure pumping, jetting and gulley cleaning in response to flooding, sweeping to clear debris from roads, JCBs to remove fallen trees, specialist arborist services for tree removal and traffic management companies to assist with road closures, and diversions.