Salt bins are filled up in West Berkshire ahead of winter freeze

Winter is coming - so West Berkshire Council is filling its road salting bins up.

It is planning on doing up to 50 ‘precautionary’ saltings over the winter months.

Currently there are 476 salt bins on the district’s network serving council offices and public buildings with daily access and the road network.

Of these 30 are owned and maintained by the council (WBC) and 446 are owned and maintained by a town or parish council.

West Berkshire Council is legally obliged to provide a service to reduce, as far as possible, the effects of hoar frost, ice and snow and other adverse weather conditions to provide travelling conditions ‘as safe as reasonably practicable’.

Last year, approximately 2,662 tonnes of salt was used in total through the season.

The salt stock is held at Chieveley Depot and there will be 1,200 tonnes for the coming season.

This stockpile will be replenished throughout the winter season to maintain sufficient supply in accordance with the newly published Winter Service Plan.

However, should the need arise the council has access to 1,000 tonnes of additional salt which is stored off site by the council’s term contractor, Volker Highways Ltd.

The primary treatment network, which represents 40.6 per cent of the highway network, and will be treated when hoar frost and/or ice is forecast, includes all “A” and “B” classified roads and some strategically important “C” class and unclassified roads.

No routes have been added or removed from this network for the coming season.

The winter service period for 2024/25 will operate from Monday, October 28, 2024 to Sunday, March 30, 2025, although this period may be extended if weather conditions dictate.

Level crossings will not receive precautionary treatment as salt acts as an electrolite and short circuits the signal system.

When an instruction to treat the highway network is issued, the council contacts Network Rail by email so they may arrange appropriate treatment using their own contractors.

During the winter period, West Berkshire Council will use the ‘RoadMaster” forecasting service.

The information received each day includes a detailed 36-hour forecast; morning, afternoon and evening update forecasts; site specific temperature graphs - obtained from the “A4 Halfway” primary weather forecasting station within West Berkshire - early morning summary; preliminary forecast; and a two-10 day forecast.

Vaisala Ltd has undertaken thermal mapping across Berkshire, a technique for measuring and analysing the thermal characteristics of road surfaces.

The information yielded from thermal mapping is used in conjunction with site specific forecasts to predict accurately the minimum temperature of road surfaces across the road network.

This allows accurate decisions to be made not only about whether to salt or not, but whether to salt only those roads that require treatment.