3:20pm Monday 5th January 2009
By Alex Lewis
ROAD engineers are insisting they are doing their best to keep traffic moving in and around St Albans in the freezing conditions.
County council spokesman John Camp said "Hertfordshire Highways’ 58 gritting crews have been out every night since News Year’s Day to keep the county’s roads safe during the present cold snap.
"Temperatures fell to minus seven degrees overnight on Saturday and more sub-zero temperatures are forecast for this evening. The north and west of the county have been worst affected, with an inch of snow in places – and snow ploughs have been sent out in some locations in west Hertfordshire.
"Highways crews went out on Sunday night night at 12.30am and again at 4.30am to salt the entire primary network before the morning peak period. From 8am on Monday, any spare crews will be salting secondary routes and high priority footways.
The crews will also be going out this evening after the evening peak period.
"The decision to send out the crews is based on information received from up-to-the-minute weather forecasts and twelve roadside weather-reporting stations linked to computers. All winter maintenance vehicles now have GPS technology fitted so we can track where any vehicle is at any time, and which roads it has salted."
Councillor Stuart Pile, the relevant cabinet member, said: "Current weather forecasts indicate that the sub-zero conditions will persist at least until the weekend, and our gritters are out and about making our roads safe, normally overnight so as not to disrupt peak period traffic."
“The Highways emergency teams are on stand-by round the clock to salt the roads at exactly the right time. The crews keep a constant eye on the latest weather forecasts so that - where possible - salting is carried out before freezing conditions occur.
"Road users are advised take extra care in these weather conditions and should be aware that, even if a road has been salted, it is not possible to guarantee that it will be free of ice and snow.”
Hertfordshire Highways salts all A and B roads, all bus routes, at least one road in and out of each village, industrial areas and shopping centres, using about d 300 tonnes of salt on each outing.
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