Apologies for the later than usual note – a very busy day and early closing of the offices has meant getting the e mail out being a bit delayed.

last night was, as forecast cold but mainly dry, and we had widespread ice formation over night.

We ran the P1 routes this morning before rush hour, and did the P2s during the day – roads generally in good condition, and we had lots of positive feeedback to this effect from across Hampshire.  We have had a lot of help from District colleagues, Parishes, and good evidence of community self-help in keeping on top of things locally.

The weather forecast for the weekend is for continuing cold nights, so ice will continue to be a problem, possibly accompanied by freezing fog.  It is also forecast for rain later tonight, which will either freeze on the way down, or freeze on impact with icy roads, so an added problem for tomorrow morning.  It will get slightly milder on Saturday, so there may be some melting of snow and ice during the day, but it will freeze again at night, and next week is also set to be very cold.

We will continue to run the P1 and P2 routes as necessary over the weekend, and hope to get more grit bins installed or refilled as appropriate where resources allow, assuming no further heavy snow falls.

 

Regards
Stuart Jarvis
Director of Environment

Brief update for 03/12/10

 

All P1 routes were run at 0630 followed immediately by the P2’s.

 

Bin filling and hand salting has been productive today with 22 gangs being deployed from Amey and subcontractors across Basingstoke, Hart & Rushmoor. In Rushmoor gangs have targeted the Queensmead and Kingsmead shopping areas and Aldershot Town centre. Footways near some schools were treated and some requests to treat footways near areas where elderly people live have been met as resources allow. In Hart gangs have been in the Yateley/Blackwater/Fleet/North Warnborough/Crondall areas to name but some.

 

Hart, Basingstoke & Rushmoor Councils have all assisted today on high usage footways

 

Mini epoke spot salting runs were instructed for specific problem spots e.g. Dora’s Green Lane – Crondall, Steven’s Hill/Caswell Ride/Coleridge Ave/Wordsworth Ave, Yateley & Hillside Rd near Odiham.

 

Tomorrow 6 gangs will be used to continue filling grit bins and gritting of footways near some schools on Sunday if weather conditions are still icy – we will not be able to resource the gritting of every school so local knowledge will be used to prioritise which we treat. The forecast is for  rain on Saturday night which would be likely to wash away any earlier treatments. Some of the bins have been emptied quickly so we will aim to do a complete check on all that have been placed.

 

(A number of bins have been totally emptied almost as soon as being filled and we have received reports of persons unknown carrying our bins around offering to salt private drives…Also taxis have been reported to be removing salt in bulk. This is not a comment directed at any particular area just something we have become aware of in northern Hampshire.

 

P1 routes in good condition overall

 

P2 routes poor still in some places. We have retreated Doras Green Lane again today but some locations were still not considered safe and as at the best of times some drivers don’t exercise the necessary level of care on that road it was felt safest to leave it, Heath Lane & Redlands Lane closed. They will be checked over the weekend, retreated and we will see if they can be reopened.

 

Untreated roads will remain problematic until thaw sets in.

 

Conditions this morning were not quite as bad as I feared which I am very thankful for but the threat of freezing rain (rain falling on to sub-zero road surfaces)  over the weekend is concerning as this can be very dangerous and we can do nothing to prevent it. Central control of salting operations is continuing and the officers involved will be keeping a careful eye on the weather forecasts.

 

I will not be ‘on duty’ over the weekend so there will be no updates from me unless I become aware of a significant issue I feel you should know about. Duty engineers are on-call over the weekend but the rest of us are hoping for a couple of days break before we have to try to catch-up with the backlog of work & emails that has built up!!

 

Hope these updates have been of assistance. They are not intended to take away from those Members receive from Stuart Jarvis but I thought Members might appreciate a little ‘local flavour’!

 

I’m looking forward to a glass of wine tonight!!

 

Regards,

                        Steve.

Steve Pellatt

 

Highways Manager – Hart

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