Winter road maintenance

Travelling in the winter

Precautions:

• If driving conditions are bad consider if your journey is a necessity.
• Not all roads are routinely salted.
• Showers or rain will wash salt away.
• Please consider how you park your vehicle, as bulk gritters need room to manoeuvre.
• If you are driving and see a gritter, please slow down and give plenty of room.

Things we can do for you:

• undertake precautionary salting. We will spread salt on the carriageways of predetermined main roads, major thoroughfares and bus routes prior to the onset of sub zero temperatures
• we have provided 658 Grit Bins at strategic points throughout the city
• monitor the weather conditions by a combination of forecasts from the Cardiff Met Office, weather stations and road sensors
• plough the road network in the city clear of snow when it falls so thickly that salt spreading is not sufficient. This will be carried out on a priority basis.
• treat pavements outside of the road network only when the road network is safe and only during prolonged inclement weather

Things we are unable to do:

• keep roads free from ice and snow
• predetermine weather
• salt the trunk roads as the Highways Agency does this
• be everywhere at once as in an emergency the priority routes are attended to first

To achieve a better service, please:

• drive with caution at all times in icy conditions and do not assume that just because a road has been salted, it will be free of ice
• remember it is not possible to treat every road in the city
• should a road be very icy and causing serious problems please contact the highways department