The winter service plan sets out how the council as the Local Highway Authority for adopted roads within our boundary meets the policy for the treatment of roads, footways and cycleways during the winter period. We enable a safe passage for vehicles and pedestrians, minimising delays due to winter weather and ensuring operations are undertaken safely.
The A63 and A1033 Trunk Roads are the responsibility of Highways England and are administered by their agents. The East Riding of Yorkshire Council is the only other Highway Authority with shared boundaries. We liaise with these two adjacent Highway Authorities to make sure the travelling public can rely on a consistent level of treatment.
Roads and gritting
Our aim is to make Hull’s roads as safe as possible for our road users and keep disruption caused by bad weather to a minimum.
From late autumn to late spring we are on standby 24 hours a day to respond to bad weather conditions.
Why we grit roads
Gritting involves the spreading of rock salt on roads. The salt lowers the temperature at which water freezes preventing ice from forming or snow from setting. However it needs traffic to be effective as it relies on the action of vehicle tyres for the salt to spread over the road.
Rock salt is effective at temperatures down to minus eight to 10 degrees Celsius, below that salted roads still freeze.
Which roads are gritted and when
Regular and detailed weather forecasts from two weather monitoring stations in Hull, help us to forecast road surface temperatures and decide which roads need gritting and when.
Road gritting is concentrated on the key routes which carry the majority of traffic around Hull, this includes bus routes.
