As the snow came down last night, many people would have sought shelter, but for Merseyside’s ‘unsung heroes’ this was the time to go out and start work. Even though their job is vitally important to ensuring public safety, it’s work rarely witnessed by others and often under-appreciated.
So when people woke up this morning wondering whether it was safe to drive after last night’s snowfall, they would have found Merseyside’s major road network ice free and fully operational – all thanks to the hard work and dedication of our region’s gritting teams.
An evening with the heroes of the snow
To gain an insight into what it takes to keep Merseyside’s roads safe during periods of ice and snow, I signed up for a shift with Knowsley Council’s gritting team and witnessed the extraordinary levels of organisation needed to make it work. The full scale of the operation is difficult to convey so I’ll describe the beginning of the shift when the trucks are getting loaded up with grit and sent out on their routes.
We are in the open yard, exposed to an increasingly cold wind and listening to team leader, Paul Christopher who is busy updating the drivers on what is required for the next eight hours. During the winter months, Knowsley Council’s gritting team are on standby 24/7 and will go out to treat the roads whatever the weather and whatever the time day or night – including Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve.
Like all local authorities, resources are tightly managed and it is nigh on impossible to grit every last stretch of road and every pavement so there is a lot of careful planning that goes into the gritting service to ensure key routes are always treated. This includes major roads leading to fire stations, hospitals, police stations and industrial areas
Knowing the weather forecast helps to plan action
Paul started working for Knowsley Council when he was 21-years-old and has just passed 27 years in the job. Since starting out Paul has witnessed radical change as he moved through the department – beginning as a driver, Paul now organises operations at the council’s maintenance depot on Stretton Way in Huyton. Paul said the biggest change has been the increased use of technology to determine the weather conditions both locally and across the region so they benefit from minute-to-minute updates on what’s happening.
Everyday, Paul will liaise with the Met Office forecasting team who use advanced weather stations, cameras and temperature gages to assess the probability of rain, sleet, snow and ice. For example, Paul was informed by the Met team on Saturday there was already snow in Pembrokeshire, Wales moving up towards the north west of England and world arrive in Liverpool at approximately 9pm.
Planning the action
Paul’s job is not reacting to the present conditions but preparing for the worst case scenario 24 hours in advance – gritting must be done before any snow or ice materialises. Even with Paul’s meticulous planning, nothing definite can be implemented as everyone in the team is placed on call 24/7 and their shifts are constantly subject to change.
Paul said:
We work off probabilities so it can be hard sometimes trying to tell the team when or if they will be needed. There’s been times when I’ve had a weather update at 10pm-11pm at night and had to arrange for the lads to come in, load up and get out on the trucks.
It’s not unusual to call someone at 1am in the morning and wake them up. That’s the job and it can be hard but we’ve got a really good group here and we all understand the importance of the job and making sure the roads are safe.
On call November till end of March
The team are on call between November 1 and the following March 31 and can be deployed at any time. Naturally, being on call means it’s difficult to switch off and relax sometimes and during weeks when the weather worsens, the hours can be long.
We meet Paul and the team at 7:30pm and they are readying themselves for another eight hour shift – following a 9am to 5pm shift on Friday and then night gritting until 5am Saturday morning. These shifts are necessary to ensure public safety on the roads and why the gritting teams are often thought of as a seasonal emergency service.
Due to the unsociable hours, the work of Paul and his team is not generally seen by the public. Their work happens when few people are around to see them, but what they do is so vital when the world gets going at daybreak – helping to ensure people can travel and be safe.
Paul has been monitoring the weather systems for the last 48 hours and made sure all the logistics are in place for the team to respond should they be needed – like tonight. After he’s briefed the drivers they climb up into the cabs of their gritting trucks and queue up to get their grit load.
The grit used is a mix of rock salt and molasses and works at temperatures as low as -10°C. It means less of the product is needed and results in less waste because gritting vehicles do not need to be reloaded as often. The grit is stored in a huge silo at the depot and during the course of an average night, Paul as his team will use approximately 140 tonnes of it to cover the major routes across Knowsley.
Gritting the roads in the dead of the night
We are paired up with former taxi driver, Mike Crowney, 59, who has worked on the gritting trucks since 2007. Mike’s route includes sections of the M62 and means he is driving in and out of Knowsley’s boundaries. As a result, Mike has the additional task of ensuring the gritting machine is turned off when entering other boroughs and turned back on again when re-entering Knowsley.
In the dead of night and with only the radio for company, driving a large truck up and down darkened roads is challenging enough so watching out for the geographical lines of adjoining council areas can be difficult. Luckily, Mike got a little help from one of his sons – Mike is married with three grown up sons and one of them works alongside him on the day shift – who mapped out the borders on a Word document and printed it out for him.
So when we came up to the Millennium Bridge – known colloquially as ‘The Sausage Bridge” – Mike’s printed journey itinerary has a picture of a sausage to remind him to adjust the gritter’s output.
They nicknamed the truck ‘Luke Grit-ler’
Another interesting curiosity amongst some gritting teams across the Liverpool City Region is nicknaming the trucks – similar to when people give a name to their cars – with Mike telling us there’s a wagon called ‘Grit-ney Spears’ out there. However, the Knowsley team had not taken on this nicknaming ‘tradition’ so Mike and myself decided to start one up and – in tribute to recent sporting events – christened our truck ‘Luke Grit-ler’.
Mike’s route means he is up and down the M62 and is required to drive at a maximum speed of 40mph in the middle lane so that the full width of the road is covered in grit. He said some people assume he must get a lot of grief for driving this way on a major road but said the vast majority of drivers understand and are appreciative of what he’s doing.
Most people greatly appreciate the job gritters do
Mike added:
After all, we’re making the roads safe for them. All us drivers live and work in Knowsley so we want these roads to be as safe as possible and we take pride in our work because there’s a lot of responsibility and a lot of people depending on us.
Asked whether he minds his work not being as visibly important as others, Mike said he doesn’t mind:
As long as I’ve done my job properly, I’m happy knowing we’ve done as much as possible to make the roads safe. That’s good enough for us.
Nonetheless, their work is greatly appreciated by all those who do know what they contribute. Cabinet Member for Communities and Neighbourhoods, Cllr Shelley Powell said:
Our gritters are key to helping keep Knowsley on the move and open for business.
Gritting the roads and keeping people safe really is a huge team effort – it involves the most sophisticated weather forecasting techniques and a team of people who’re ready to head out into the coldest of winter nights whenever they get that call.
Because of the hours they sometimes work, you may never see them – but we’re all a lot safer on the roads because of these unsung heroes!
We stay with Mike for just over an hour as he completed part of his circuit and spread about eight tonnes of grit. Mike turns back towards the depot where he will reload the truck with another eight tonnes of grit and go back out into the night.
Just as we say goodbye to Mike and thank him for showing us the ropes, the snow begins to fall so he gets back into his cab and head’s out for the next circuit.
