OIC steps up effort to keep priority roads open amid prolonged nationwide freeze

As the nationwide winter freeze continues, Orkney Islands Council has suspended planned roadworks across the county today to enable a major effort in keeping priority 1 roads open.

The move means that all available roads staff will be focused on running the fleet of gritters and ploughs and where possible assist in clearing footpaths, filling salt bins and helping with the general clear up.

After a concerted effort by crews over the weekend, priority 1 routes remain passable with care today and work continues to ensure they remain open and treated.
There are 370km of Priority 1 – main “A” roads - in Orkney and they must remain the prime concern. These are important principal roads, such as those leading to the Covid-19 vaccination centres within the new and former hospitals, other important industrial establishments, fire stations, transport terminals, selected bus routes, important journey-to-work routes and known trouble spots.

There are a further 410km of priority 2 roads – higher priority arterial routes – such as town centres and other remaining principal roads not in priority 1. Our crews managed to treat most priority two routes on Sunday, however, it is advised that these are avoided where possible as there are a few areas still being treated.

Orkney has just over 200km of priority 3 roads, which include single-track routes with passing places and some residential streets.

Sanday is reportedly the only island with significant accumulations of snow in the middle area which is being attended to by Council staff on the island.

OIC Roads and Environmental Services Manager, John Wrigley, said Orkney has not seen conditions as severe as these for around ten years, and the current forecast is predicting further snow showers, particularly this evening and overnight.

“This is not unique to Orkney – this is a nationwide prolonged freeze. We have been out gritting virtually every day since Christmas time and treating the conditions according to national guidance. This currently means a grit and salt mix which is appropriate for snow, and later today we will switch to salt only treatments due to the ice forecast. This has had a huge impact on our salt stocks. On top of our existing stock and in preparation and to ensure we maintained supplies due to the unprecedented usage, we placed and received an order for an additional 3,400 tonnes of salt in January. Despite this forward planning, we had to review supplies again last week, and whilst we currently have 900 tonnes of salt in stock, we have a further 2,900 tonnes now ordered and anticipated to arrive in the county later this week.

“This means our current usage this year is 5914 tonnes to date – this compares with 3384 tonnes throughout the entire season last year and 3100 tonnes the year before. These are extreme and prolonged conditions the like we are not used to in Orkney so we would again appeal to the public for their help and to only use priority 1 routes when possible and exercise caution when driving on all routes. We are also encountering drifting snow and areas where there has been a melt and re-freeze leading to treacherous conditions.

“During these Covid-19 times when people are encouraged to stay at home whenever possible we would also reiterate that the less traffic on our roads at the moment, the safer it is for everyone. If you must travel, please use the priority 1 roads when possible. If you must go via priority 2 or 3 roads, please be mindful that some may not have been treated as we may be fully occupied keeping the priority 1 routes open. We would also ask that you drive according to the conditions; leave extra time for your journeys and be prepared. If you are travelling at night, be mindful the last salting ends at 18:00.”

If conditions persist, the Council will look to keep roadworks suspended to allow for our efforts to remain focused on winter services.

Mr Wrigley added: “We have eight mainland gritters and are applying treatments on the outer isles for up to 12 hours every day as well as having footpath squads in Kirkwall and Stromness most days as per our winter service plan. During the working week, we also utilise additional workers if required, as we are doing currently by suspending roadworks. We must thank all of our staff for working tirelessly in difficult conditions to try and improve conditions for all our residents.”

We will be providing further updates as often as required so please check in regularly to the OIC Updates Facebook page.

We thank you for your assistance and patience as our crews and staff work hard to ensure roads remain open and footpaths cleared. However, we also ask that if you are able to help by making use of the salt bins on some of our footpaths then please do – it is much appreciated by us and fellow members of the community.

Stay home and stay safe whenever possible.

For further information visit view the Council’s Winter Services Plan.