With storms and ice galore over the past few months, Somerset Council’s winter-ready team went out 1679 times this winter covering more than 117,000 miles of Somerset’s roads.
Teams from the council’s highways maintenance and winter service partner, Kier worked hard throughout the cold weather to treat the network and help prevent the formation ice.
More than 6,000 tonnes of salt were used to help keep the network running, with crews heading out during both day and night.
This year the coldest road surface temperature was logged at -5.3c on 3 January 2025.
Cllr Richard Wilkins, Somerset Council Lead Member for Transport and Waste said:
We’re grateful to our hardworking teams who work round the clock to treat Somerset’s key road network during the winter and help keep the county moving. This year they travelled an impressive number of miles – the equivalent of going more than 4 times around the Earth!
The team from four depots worked throughout the night on some of our coldest days.
Allan Rigby, General Manager for Kier Transportation, said:
Over the winter months, our crews were out at all hours and we are so proud of their hard work and resilience in the toughest of conditions.
Not only do they get out gritting, but one of our drivers also stopped in the dead of night to help an elderly resident – giving her his jacket and then calling the emergency services, going above and beyond to support the community, before continuing to keep the roads safe.
The winter road treatment team use weather stations across Somerset and receive special daily forecasts. Gritting usually takes place when road surface temperatures are predicted to drop below 1°C and frost or ice is expected to form on the road.
