Gritting
We are responsible for the maintenance of over 500 kilometres (310 miles) of road with standards varying between major Principal routes and lanes barely wide enough to accommodate single file traffic.
About winter services
Providing a winter service is an important part of our work and each year we spend between £90,000 and £150,000 on roads affected by winter weather.
We will salt the roads when:
- The roads are likely to be wet and the road temperatures are at or below freezing
- Snow is forecast
We use a computerised 'Icelert' system which continuously monitors actual conditions, using ice and weather detectors placed on the roadside at strategic locations. Experienced staff evaluate weather information received from the weather forecast centre and make careful judgements when to salt. The objective is to spread salt onto the treated road network in order to reduce the temperature at which ice forms.
Radar and satellite images can be used to show rain and cloud cover over the Borough, and we have close links with the weather forecasters. This means major routes that need salting most can be identified and treated and the workforce can be directed to the affected areas
Using this method a more efficient, cost effective and environmentally sensitive winter maintenance service is provided with the amount of salt used kept to a minimum
Despite our efforts, winter weather can still make roads dangerous. With over 90% of all crashes attributed to human error the real key to driving in winter is to drive with due care for the conditions.
Even with salting you need to remember that:
- Access to the highway network is not always possible;
- Even when roads have been salted it takes time for the salt to become effective;
- Rain can wash salt off roads leaving them prone to re-icing;
- In severe weather conditions even salting will not prevent roads from icing up.
How you can keep safe on the roads in the winter
Ask yourself, "Do I really need to travel?" If you do then consider making your journey by rail or bus.
If you do need to travel remember:
- Check your battery
- Check your tyres
- Check the weather forecast and road conditions
- Make sure there is anti-freeze in your radiator and windscreen washer bottle
- Allow extra time for your journey
- When the visibility is poor due to rain, fog and snow, use dipped headlights - see and be seen
- Always watch out for pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists - they can be difficult to see in bad conditions
- Test your brakes after going through deep water, braking lightly to help to dry them out
- In high winds watch out for debris and sudden gusts
- Slow down in fog, it makes you think you are travelling slower than you are
- When it's foggy don't use the tail lights of the vehicle in front as a guide
- Give snow ploughs and gritters plenty of room - overtake them with extreme caution and only if your overtaking lane has been gritted or cleared of snow.
- Drive to the conditions before you and never assume that roads have been treated.
- In winter, stopping distances become much longer. When driving on slippery roads, slow down and leave more space between you and the vehicle in front.
What we can and can't do to help
What we do to help
- Take precautionary salting on the major roads of the Council's highway network
- Monitor road conditions and determine where the problems are occurring
- Clear the major routes of snow
- React to highway flooding, fallen trees and potholes
- Keep any delays to a minimum
What we can't do
- Maintain roads that falls outside of the Borough boundary or work on the A31 trunk road
- Salt all roads as this would be a massive and costly exercise
- Keep the road network free of ice and snow all of the time
Salting Poole's roads
Please use the link on the right to download a map of the salting routes in Poole.
Priority 1 precautionary salting is undertaken on approximately 110 kilometres (69 miles) of Poole roads salting network. Priority 2 increases this by approximately 40 kilometres (25 miles) of the network when extremely poor weather conditions are predicted. The decision to salt roads is made on road temperature and not air temperatures.
PRIORITY 1 PRE-SALTING ROUTES
Adastral Road
Albert Road
Alder Road
Archway Road
Arrowsmith Road ( Gravel Hill to tip entrance)
Ashley Road
Banks Road
Bay Hog Lane
Beechbank Avenue
Birds Hill Road
Blandford Road
Bournemouth Road
Branksome Wood Road
Bridge Approach
Broadstone Way
Cabot Lane (Waterloo Road to Broadstone Way)
Canford Cliffs Road (Lilliput Road to Haven Road)
Canford Heath Road
Canford Magna
Canford Way
Churchfield Road (Ambulance Station to Parkstone Road)
Churchill Road
Civic Centre Gyratory
Clarendon Road
Commercial Road
Constitution Hill Rd
County Gates Gyratory
Cranbrook Road (Ashley Road to Upper Road)
Creekmoor Lane
Culliford Cresent
Dale Valley Road
Darby's Lane ( Dorchester Road to Wimborne Road/New Inn)
Dorchester Road (Oakdale Road to Darbys Lane)
Dorset Way
Dunyeats Road
Edgarton Road
Elizabeth Road (Longfleet Road to Parkstone Road)
Fern Barrow (Wallisdown Road to University - dual carriageway)
Fernside Road
Ferry Way (to Sandbanks Ferry)
George Roundabout
Gravel Hill
Hatch Pond Road (Stinsford Road to Waterloo Road)
Haven Road
Herbert Avenue
High Street North
Higher Blandford Road
Holes Bay Road
Hunger Hill Junction
King John Avenue
Kingland Road (George Roundabout to Seldown Bridge)
Kingsbridge Road
Knights Road (High Howe Lane to King John Avenue)
Leicester Road
Lilliput Road
Lindsay Road
Link from Wimborne Bypass to Gravel Hill
Livingstone Road (Uppleby Road to Cranbrook Road)
Longfleet Road
Longmeadow Lane
Lower Blandford Road
Magna Road
Mannings Heath Road
Merley Park Road
Mount Pleasant Road
New & part of Old Orchard (Lagland Street to West Street)
New Harbour Road (including to Ferry Terminal roundabout)
New Quay Road
North Road
Northmead Drive
Oakdale Road
Oakley Hill
Oakley Lane
Old Wareham Road
Osbourne Road
Panorama Road
Park Road
Parkstone Road
Penn Hill Avenue
Pinecliff Road
Pinesprings Drive
Poole Road
Queen Anne Drive
Richmond Road
Ringwood Road
Roman Road (Clarendon Road to Pine Springs Road)
Sandbanks Road
Sea View Road
Seamoor Rd
Seldown Bridge (Kingland Road to Newfoundland Drive)
Serpentine Road (Railway Station to Wimborne Road)
Sherborn Crescent
Shore Road (Evening Hill to Banks Road)
Sopers Lane
Springdale Road
Stanfield Road
Station Road
Surrey Road
The Avenue
Tollerford Road
Towngate Bridge
Upton Bypass
Upton Road
Vanguard Road
Victoria Road
Wallisdown Road
Waterloo Road
Wessex Way (adjacent to County Gates)
West Quay Road
West Street
Western Road
Wimborne Road
Woodpecker Drive (Longmeadow Drive to Northmead Road)
Woodside Road
Yarmouth Road
Yarrow Road (Canford Way to Links Road/Dorset Way Slip)
York Road (Sopers Lane to Broadway)
PRIORITY 2 PRE-SALTING ROUTES
Abingdon Road
Alder Crescent (Aspen Road to Alder Road)
Alderney Avenue
Alexandra Road (Vale Road to Bournemouth Road)
Arne Avenue
Aspen Road
Bourne Valley Road (Poole Road to Surrey Road)
Canford Cliffs Road (Lilliput Road to Penn Hill)
Coles Avenue
Cowley Road (Abingdon Road to Nuffield Road)
Dorchester Road (Darbys Lane to Wimborne Road)
Egmont Road
Evering Avenue (Manor Avenue to Corbiere Avenue)
Fernbarrow (circuit from University dual carriageway roundabout)
Fleets Lane
Foreland Road
Garland Road
Grove Road
Guest Avenue
Harbour View Road
Hatch Pond Road (Nuffield Road to Stinsford Road)
Kitchener Crescent
Knights Road (King John Avenue to Runnymede Avenue)
Lagland Street
Lake Road (Lulworth Avenue to Blandford Road)
Links Road
Livingstone Road (Churchill Road to Uppleby Road)
Mansfield Road
Melbury Avenue
Merley Lane (Rempstone Road to Queen Anne Drive)
Newfoundland Drive (Seldown Bridge to Lagland Street)
North Lodge Road
Northmere Road
Nuffield Road
Oakley Straight
Old Orchard (The Quay to Lagland Street)
Pinewood Road
Pottery Road
Pound Lane
Rempstone Road
Rossmore Road
Runnymede Avenue (Knights Road to King John Avenue)
Sandecotes Road
Southill Road
St Osmunds Road
Stanley Green Road (Vicarage Road to Sterte Road)
Sterte Road
The Quay (Poole Bridge to Old Orchard)
Tower Road
Turbary Road (Herbert Avenue to Melbury Avenue)
Turlin Road
Upper Road
Uppleby Road
Vicarage Road
Westminster Road (Pinecliff Road to The Avenue)
Winston Avenue
All major urban roads and access to emergency services such as hospitals and fire stations are included on the salting network.
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