MOTORISTS are being reminded to give gritting vehicles time and space as snow and ice are forecast for the region.
The message comes with more cold weather and snow forecast by the Met Office, and where conditions determine gritting vehicles need to go out, they will spread salt where needed.
The Met Office put a yellow ice and snow warning into place on Monday (March 6) and Tuesday.
Temperatures were forecast to drop to -3°C in parts of the region and snow was predicted for Thursday.
National Highways manages 4,500 miles of A-roads and motorways and can call upon around 530 gritters in extreme weather conditions.
Darren Clark, Severe Weather Resilience Manager at National Highways, said: “As our gritting teams go out to spread salt on the roads, our message is simple to all road users: ‘Please be patient and give us the time and space to do what we need to do to keep you safe’.
“If you are going to pass us, please do so courteously, pass us safely and legally, or even better, if you are able to stay back, you will actually help the salt on the road activate even more quickly by crushing and breaking it into the road surface which benefits everyone.
“It’s worth remembering too, we are not gritting all the time. Some of our fleet may come off at particular junctions or return to depots while other vehicles take over, lowering any inconvenience to motorists.”
Gritters have been going out whenever needed during the winter season and our teams across the country have been monitoring the Met Office weather forecasts along with regular road weather forecasts from meteorological experts MetDesk since then to determine when they need to go out to spread salt.
