It's snowing

Westyfield2

Westyfield2

Westyfield2

Soldato
Joined
14 Dec 2005
Posts
12,488
Location
Bath
Roads were chaos round here last night. Buses got stuck (bendy-buses being the worst) which then blocked everyone else. As the highways people keep saying, what's needed for the grit to work is traffic passing over it to grind it into the snow... but no-one could move because of the stuck buses! All the normal parked cars means that there's just one route through everywhere, you can't drive around the stuck bus or have much room to manoeuvre. And then everyone got bored after not moving for a couple of hours (and were now stuck as they'd lost their momentum and the snow was still falling without anyone driving over the grit) and abandoned their cars.
This morning the stuck buses have been towed away, and the gritters have been out where possible... but loads of roads are shut because of abandoned cars.

SELFISH PEOPLE GET AND MOVE YOUR CARS, SOME OF US HAVE AWD & WINTER TYRES AND CAN DRIVE ON THIS FINE IF YOUR CARS AREN'T ABANDONDED IN THE WAY!

</rant>
 

4T5

4T5

4T5

Man of Honour
Joined
30 Aug 2004
Posts
27,739
Location
Middle of England
I was hoping to wake to the gorgeous sound of rain hitting my window, Instead I wake up to find all my hard work clearing the path out front, the drive, the jitty down the side of my house & the yard & path across the back has been undone. :(

Good job I did all my chores & visiting yesterday as I really can't be ****** to go clearing again.


Snow is ******** !!! :mad: + :p
 

Westyfield2

Westyfield2

Westyfield2

Soldato
Joined
14 Dec 2005
Posts
12,488
Location
Bath
Council Statement
The driving conditions late Tuesday afternoon and the evening were extremely challenging. Prior to the snowfall on Tuesday afternoon, the two gritting runs that were conducted on Monday night and Tuesday morning provided sufficient grit to keep the roads safe for users and double what was normally laid down. The highways team also tested the level of salt to ensure that it was sufficient to work properly. Our next gritting run took place at 6pm as planned to coincide with the heavier volume of traffic.

Unfortunately, there were significant delays on some key routes due to buses that had jack-knifed, the very high volume of traffic on the road which went onto the network at the same time, and some vehicles were being abandoned. This meant our gritters had problems getting through to address some of the problems that were reported to us, particularly on slopes. All the gritting fleet was working and the teams did manage to get through and cleared the obstructions as fast as possible. Dunkerton Hill was a particular problem and abandoned vehicles led to tailbacks.

In order for grit to work, the action of passing traffic mixes the salt in with the snow and starts to turn it to a slush that passes through the highway drainage. It is for this reason that a 6.00pm gritting run took place to coincide with the traffic. Because of the lack of movement on the network due to these factors, a situation was created where the roads became slippery and drivers became frustrated.

We understand the frustration that drivers must have felt and thank people for their patience during this difficult night. We tweeted updates throughout the evening and relayed concerns directly to the gritting team to assist them in identifying the most difficult situations.

The gritting teams conducted a further three runs during the night and the main roads this morning were clear and for the most part, running smoothly.
Click to expand...

Buses got stuck, which blocked everyone else, and then caused all the problems :rolleyes:. Hopefully they'll ban the buses for the next snowfall.
 
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