Winter maintenance for roads, highways and pavements

We are responsible for the maintenance of all public highways within Bristol - except the M32 and A4 Bristol Broadway at Avonmouth.  These are  the responsibility of The Highways Agency.

We have a Winter Service Team, operating from October to April, who monitor weather forecasts and road conditions and decide on preventative or reactive treatments.

Road treatments are carried out by May Gurney from a base at Hartcliffe. To do this they:

• use rock salt that comes from underground supplies in Cheshire
• use a fleet of eight vehicles
• grit about 30% of the road network in Bristol.

Preventative treatments

Precautionary salting

We have a Winter Service Plan that sets out the roads to be treated to prevent the formation of ice.  If snow is forecast the rate of salt spread is increased to melt the snow and prevent the formation of ice.  Roads are pre-treated in a priority order as follows:

• principal roads
• major routes connecting population centres and commuter routes
• major bus routes
• roads around hospitals and emergency services

It isn't always possible to carry out precautionary pre-salting on some or all routes.  This could be due to:

• vehicle breakdowns
• driver illness and
• short or no notice of frost and ice conditions.

Gritting routes

View priority gritting routes interactive map

Download a map of priority gritting routes (pdf, 1.3 MB)

Reactive treatments

Ice

Initial reactive treatments follow the same priority routes as for precautionary salting. However, if conditions are particularly severe, treatments may be extended to include additional routes, depending upon resources available. We also liaise with all necessary agencies to prioritise work depending on the local conditions at the time.

Snow removal

Combined salting and ploughing is used for the removal of snow over 50mm deep. In exceptional circumstances extra labour and plant will be used to help with snow clearance.

Grit bins

There are 750 grit bins strategically placed around the city on minor routes and hills. They are topped up at the start of winter. Sand or grit may also be hand applied to hills, footways and shopping centres as resources allow.

You can search for your nearest grit bin.

If your grit bin is getting low, or yours is missing, call customer services on 0117 922 2100.