Our aim is to make Hull’s roads as safe as possible and keep disruption caused by bad weather to a minimum. From late autumn to late spring, we are on standby 24 hours a day to respond to bad weather conditions.
Gritting involves the spreading of rock salt on roads. The salt lowers the temperature at which water freezes. This prevents ice from forming or snow from setting. It needs traffic to be effective as it relies on the action of vehicle tyres for the salt to spread over the road.
Rock salt is effective at temperatures down to minus 8 to 10 degrees Celsius. Below that, salted roads will still freeze.
Which roads are gritted and when
We have regular and detailed weather forecasts from 2 weather monitoring stations in Hull. This helps us forecast road surface temperatures and decide which roads need gritting and when.
Road gritting is concentrated on the key routes which carry the majority of traffic around Hull. This includes bus routes. You can access the map of our gritting route here (opens in a new window).