Forecast
During the afternoon sleet and snow will spread
from the west. At times the snow fall is expected to be fairly significant, at
least over higher ground.
Action Taken by Durham County Council (5/12/12 –
6/12/12)
All priority routes were treated on Wednesday 5th
December from 2 p.m. to accommodate the rush hour traffic. All 38 gritters were
on routes.
However despite priority routes being treated as
planned, some areas experienced congestion, particularly Chester- le- Street,
Stanley, Durham, Consett and Sacriston. This is thought to be a consequence of
motorists leaving work early and as a result of the blizzard and icy
conditions.
There were also issues outside of the county,
particularly on the A1 and Gateshead which resulted in some vehicles re-routing
through County Durham. In addition a lorry jack-knifed on the A693
between Chester- le- Street and Stanley which caused gridlock for several
hours, with traffic backing up through CLS onto the A1 junction. This situation
also resulted in congestion being experienced throughout CLS and also on the
A167 and A6127.
Following the first treatment gritters continued to
patrol their routes and treated problem areas as necessary. This morning’s
treatment commenced at 4.00 a.m. with additional resource provided by farmer
contractors on priority 2 routes. No incidents on the treated network have been
reported.
With regard to the treatment of footways,
Streetscene staff have been working in all areas since early morning clearing
priority 1 footpaths.
In the south of the county, Streetscene staff are
working ahead of refuse crews and salting any potential icy areas. Not all
priority 1 footpaths have required salting as they are relatively clear.
In the north of the county, refuse crews are
collecting waste on flatter ground initially and will collect in other areas
later in the day.
In the east of the county, gritting is being
carried out on priority 1 areas including Durham City Centre, Church Street
Shopping Centre at Seaham and emergency services premises.
Although refuse and recycling crews are working
hard to complete today’s collections, road conditions in this area are reported
as being hazardous.
Planned Action
We will continue to monitor weather forecasts and
base our operations on these.
Gritters will be out again this afternoon before
the rush hour commences.
Communications
The council is regularly updating the website on
any interruption to services resulting from the weather conditions and is using
facebook and twitter as well as the media to get messages out to the public.
There is also a news item on the home page called ‘weather and highways’ which
will take people straight to the latest updates.
