Glasgow City Council gears up for winter with new road maintenance programme

Special road maintenance arrangements are being put in place to prevent disruption to those travelling around the city this winter.
Picture Michael Gillen.Picture Michael Gillen.
Picture Michael Gillen.

Glasgow City Council is gearing up for winter as it aims to provide an effective and efficient service to allow the safe passage of vehicles and pedestrians while minimising delays due to weather and ensuring operations are undertaken safely.

This year at least 18 drivers will be on duty on any given night and these numbers can be increased when necessary. Workers will be required to drive large carriageway gritting vehicles depending on weather conditions.

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The programme will come into effect at the beginning of November and is expected to be in place until April 2020.

Roads will mainly be gritted overnight by staff based at the Gartcraig Depot. It is hoped this will reduce disruption to normal day time work activities. Roads will also be gritted during normal hours as and when required.

Footways and cycle paths will be looked after during the day but can be tended to before 5am if needed.

Last week the local authority revealed it had joined forces with Sustrans and Transport Scotland to buy a new vehicle which would de-ice segregated cycle paths with brine.

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Cycle lanes across Glasgow will be sprayed with the salt solution instead of grit for the first time in a bid to keep cyclists on their bikes for longer this winter.

Areas which will benefit from the scheme are the South West City Way, West City Way, Sauchiehall Avenue and South City Way.

With the salt already in the solution, the brine will start to work immediately and will reduce the risk of bikes skidding on grit and cyclists falling off.

Carriageways, footways and cycle ways will be prioritised in order of importance.

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The most important carriageway routes include all main bus routes registered at the end of the summer, Buchanan Bus Station, designated school drop-off points and public roads accessing fire, ambulance and police stations.

Footways which will be looked after first, include access routes to schools, shopping centres out with the city centre, pedestrianised areas and city centre paths with a high volume of pedestrians.

The National Cycle Network Number 75 is also deemed a priority. These routes will be pre-treated should the weather forecast predict first, ice or snow is likely to be present on road surfaces.

Other routes will be tended to as and when required if conditions are likely to last more than 48 hours. The plan will be discussed by councillors this afternoon.

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