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Trunk Road Gritter Tracker

scotgov.maps.arcgis.com

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Re: Trunk Road Gritter Tracker

#11

Post by mynegation »

kingpiss wrote: post #8

I live in a warm place so I am out of touch, but isn't that like a lot of gritters for how small Scotland is?

Hailing from Canada - does not look like nearly enough, probably because Scotland has relatively mild climate.

The road network is very dense and branched out. Also, it takes several snow plowing machines going in formation to clean major multi lane highway. Timing is also important- you want the road cleaned as soon as possible not several days later, especially if wet snow freezes into ice.

Re: Trunk Road Gritter Tracker

#12

Post by arethuza »

kingpiss wrote: post #8

I live in a warm place so I am out of touch, but isn't that like a lot of gritters for how small Scotland is?

As I note in another comment - the gritters on that map are a small subset of all the gritters - those are just the ones that appear to be centrally controlled on 'major' routes.

We don't get huge amounts of snow (at least not very often) - but what we do get is a combination of snow and high winds - which can make it a nightmare to keep higher roads open.

Re: Trunk Road Gritter Tracker

#13

Post by dairylee »

kingpiss wrote: post #8

I live in a warm place so I am out of touch, but isn't that like a lot of gritters for how small Scotland is?

The trunk road network is 2179 miles (3506km) long and there's ~120 gritters deployed.

Doesn't seem like an unreasonable amount to me.

Re: Trunk Road Gritter Tracker

#14

Post by alistairSH »

arethuza wrote: post #12
kingpiss wrote: post #8

I live in a warm place so I am out of touch, but isn't that like a lot of gritters for how small Scotland is?

As I note in another comment - the gritters on that map are a small subset of all the gritters - those are just the ones that appear to be centrally controlled on 'major' routes. We don't get huge amounts of snow (at least not very often) - but what we do get is a combination of snow and high winds - which can make it a nightmare to keep higher roads open.

Do you get icy-freeze-thaw conditions? Here in DC, we don't get a ton of snow, but when we do get winter weather, it's always just at freezing, so everything immediately gets thawed and re-frozen into ice. Most of my trips to Scotland have been summer, so only had snow up Glen Shee. The one time I visited in winter, it snowed a bit as I drove between Laggan and Dunkeld, but nothing dangerous.

Re: Trunk Road Gritter Tracker

#15

Post by arethuza »

alistairSH wrote: post #14
arethuza wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I note in another comment - the gritters on that map are a small subset of all the gritters - those are just the ones that appear to be centrally controlled on 'major' routes. We don't get huge amounts of snow (at least not very often) - but what we do get is a combination of snow and high winds - which can make it a nightmare to keep higher roads open.

Do you get icy-freeze-thaw conditions? Here in DC, we don't get a ton of snow, but when we do get winter weather, it's always just at freezing, so everything immediately gets thawed and re-frozen into ice. Most of my trips to Scotland have been summer, so only had snow up Glen Shee. The one time I visited in winter, it snowed a bit as I drove between Laggan and Dunkeld, but nothing dangerous.

"Glen Shee" - Scotland's version of the French Three Valleys! :-)

Not sure we get any kind of weather conditions (apart from wind and rain) with any predictability!

Re: Trunk Road Gritter Tracker

#20

Post by driverdan »

Having never heard the terms "trunk road" or "gritter" it took me a little time to figure out what this was. Correct me if I'm wrong but "trunk road" appears to mean something like main road and "gritter" seems to mean plow and/or sanding truck.
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