buckinghamshire county council 1 winter service presentation to members november 4 th 2013 1

Buckinghamshire County Council

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Winter Service

Presentation to Members

November 4th 2013

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Winter Service

Annual Winter Service Review

Purpose• Recognised as industry good practice• Identify areas for improvement• Consider member, parish and customer feedback• Prepare Winter Resilience Plans


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Winter Service


Context• Overview & Scrutiny recommendations – Summer 2010• Revised issue of Well Maintained Roads CoP (Appendix H) – Dec

2010 & Sept 2013• Final publication of Quarmby Report – Autumn 2010• Public expectations• No funding increase


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Annual Winter Maintenance Review

Approach• Officer winter review group• Consider network priorities & selection• Community engagement & Self Help• Resources• Communications Plan - Access to information• Road Weather Information Systems – Forecasting and Weather

monitoring stations• Consider new developments


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Winter Service

Network Priorities

Priority 1 Precautionary salting network• 1405km (41%) –Includes ALL A & B classified roads• In addition other important C & U/C roads• Network selection takes account of traffic flows, route topography,

bus routes (school & public), adjacent key facilities, community links, previous salting regime, efficiency and practicality.

• 25 spreaders from 4 depots• Normal treatment run (for ice) – 65t salt (pre-wet salting)• Maximum treatment run (for snow) – 170t salt


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Winter Service

Network Priorities

Snow network• Only implemented during severe weather

or critical salt shortages.• Reduced network – A & B roads only and some key links as

follows:–major communities, key emergency facilities, facilities for other transport providers

• 700km (22%)• 12 routes (24 spreaders and snow ploughs)


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Winter Service

Network Priorities

Priority 2 Secondary salting network• Include most other roads and footways such as:

– Classified roads not included in priority 1 network, u/c roads serving communities of 200 dwellings or more, roads with gradients of >10%, high use footways and cycleways

• Generally only treated post weather event. • Response times subject to available resources


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Winter Service Review

Communications Plan – Access to Information• Website – Service Information Centre• Twitter• Radio/TV/Press• Winter Driving leaflet• Variable Message Signs• Parish communications


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Winter Service

• Weather Forecasting and Decision Making• 4 forecasts received during each day• Morning Summary, 24 Hour Forecast and 2-5 day

forecast, Evening Summary• Based on 3 Weather Forecast domains• Detailed information on predicted Surface and Air

temperatures, precipitation, frost and ice formation, wind direction and speed, snowfall etc


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2012 -13 Facts and Figures

• Cold weather started early Nov – Relatively cold winter• A number of snowfall events – at least one to a depth of 150mm (6”)• Minimum RST – - 8 degrees C• Continuous salting and ploughing• Secondary salting• Hand salting• Salt bins• Additional resources – Parish & Town Councils, District, Farmers &

supply chain.• Remaining winter period quite cold particularly Mar/April• Priority 1 precautionary salting runs – 78, average is 65• Salt usage – 10500t


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• New Developments• Route optimisation – uses computer model to look at

routes to work out the most efficient way of carrying out precautionary salting

• Following generation of model, sit down with supervisors and drivers to tweak routes

• Potential to make savings in equipment/labour• Could result in slightly longer run times


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Winter Service

• Questions

buckinghamshire county council 1 winter service presentation to members november 4 th 2013 1

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