County council fills thousands of salt bins as winter draws near

1:00pm Thursday 1st November 2012 in Local By Emily Roberts, Chief Reporter

AS WINTER approaches, council road chiefs say they have enough salt for 15 days continuous salting.

They also claim to have filled 3,000 community salt bins and that 100 farmers are ready with snow ploughs.

Amey, Hampshire County Council’s highway maintenance partner, has also replaced eight old spreaders with new vehicles guided by satellite-based systems.

Hampshire has 5,600 miles of road and a priority system is used for salting.

Priority one routes carry 85 per cent of total traffic in the county and include A roads, major bus routes, roads to major emergency services, areas of high traffic concentration and all public transport areas. They will be treated when temperatures are forecast to drop below freezing.

Priority two routes include B roads and single access roads to villages and schools, which will be treated during periods of prolonged severe weather. Information is available from maps.hants.gov.uk/saltroutesmap.

Councillor Mel Kendal, leader and executive member for environment and transport at the council, said: “It is vital that we keep main routes open so that people can carry on with their normal, day-to-day activities.”

He advised drivers to park considerately so salting lorries are not obstructed and help treat public paths and pavements and minor roads using salt from the community bins.

Comments(8)

The Mad Mike 1 says...
8:41pm Thu 1 Nov 12

Why oh why do councils insist on using pure salt on our roads,back in the eighties we used to use a 50/50 mix of salt and washed grit and never had any problems of traffic not being able to get around safely,but of course it was cheaper!! and councils don't seem to like things being cheap these days.

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robertspet8 says...
5:23pm Mon 5 Nov 12

Mad Mike, here is the explanation from the HCC website:
'The County Council uses a pre-wetted salt system on its road network. This system uses brine which is sprayed onto dry salt as it is discharged from the vehicles. With this system the salt becomes a more effective de-icing agent as it goes into solution faster and remains on the road surface longer than dry salt because it is not blown around by the wind.Less 'wetted' salt needs to be spread to give the same results as dry salt which is of benefit to the environment.'

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BugBear says...
8:32pm Tue 6 Nov 12

This article is peppered with negative ions which assault ones senses. Sodium be it, chloride I can take it no more.

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The Mad Mike 1 says...
9:18pm Tue 6 Nov 12

Have no fear,it's all been salted now,the county is peppered with salt bins.
Amen.

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Folkestone Saint says...
2:15pm Wed 7 Nov 12

Council fill's thousands of bins, ten's of people empty them into bags for their own use

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The Mad Mike 1 says...
10:09pm Wed 7 Nov 12

I know of a council that used to put grit into roadside bins but people used to remove it and use it to mix in with compost for growing seedlings, when the council put a 50/50 mix of grit and salt into these bins they were quickly emptied as usual but strangely not the following year,one wonders why?

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Sam_Walker123456 says...
4:17pm Fri 9 Nov 12

The Mad Mike, am I being unfairly suspicious but how do you know what the people were doing with the grit? Did you follow them to their home and spy on them over the garden wall or is there some more innocent answer? :-)

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The Mad Mike 1 says...
11:27pm Fri 9 Nov 12

I used to be one of the operatives who were filling these bins,when people started to find their plants not growing properly cos of the salt mixed in i was getting moaned at, i still don't understand !!!!

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