Drivers are being urged to take care on North Yorkshire roads as further wintry weather is forecast this week.
The Harrogate District was subject to widespread delays this morning, during the rush hour period. Many were reporting that a normal journey of 30minutes was taking up to 2 hours, and largely do to the volume of traffic and being slow moving that specific blockages.
- North Yorkshire County Council’s gritters treated priority routes before snow began to fall in all affected parts of the county on Sunday evening,
- Gritting continued into the early hours of Monday morning (24 Feb) and again immediately after it began snowing
- Salting and ploughing also continued throughout the snow event with additional support from our army of farming contractors.
- There is a yellow warning for ice that will continue into tomorrow
Nigel Smith, Head of Highways Operations, said:
We use the latest weather forecasting technology in planning our gritting operations, so were alert to the snowfall that was predicted to come last night and this morning. Our gritters were on the roads treating priority routes yesterday (Sunday) evening.
After snow began to fall, our gritters were back out immediately to carry out further treatments, including ploughing where appropriate. We rely on traffic driving over a gritted road to grind the salt and activate it. Salt alone does not melt snow and ice.
The county has a fleet of 86 gritters supported by 107 farm contractors.
Nigel added:
With the recent heavy rain and further showers to come, plus snow-melt, there is the potential for standing water and run-off on roads.
Temperatures are forecast to fall below zero in many areas of the county on most days this coming week, so there is a risk of frost, ice and further wintry showers. Therefore, we urge drivers to take extra care.
Gritters will be treating priority routes across North Yorkshire this evening (Monday) and again tomorrow morning in line with the county council’s policy.
County Councillor Don Mackenzie, Executive Member for Access, said:
Dealing with severe winter weather like this on our extensive road network is a top priority for us. It matters to everyone who lives and works in the county. Our first priority is the major routes that connect or pass through the county’s towns. We clear these before moving on to our second level of priority routes, those that give access to smaller communities.
While we do all we can to help traffic to keep moving during winter weather, it is important for drivers to drive with caution.
A spokesperson for Transdev said:
We had a full complement of colleagues and buses for service this morning but situations on the road network quickly deteriorated due to worsening road conditions and severe congestion, as those using the roads this morning will know. On two routes we attempted to run buses which became stuck.
Along the way, we have kept customers informed to the minute and I’m pleased to report that things are improving.
Craig Temple of Connexions said:
We had a bus stuck in traffic on pool bank for 2 hours, another tried Otley way instead and after an hour gave that up.
Harrogate just seem to come to a stop.
One of our buses took an hour and a half from Tockwith to Knaresborough to try and start a school run.
It’s one of those things really – but if car drivers stayed away, buses would still be able to run for much of the time!
