Moray's winter road operations ready despite £300,000 salt price hike
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MORAY'S winter road operation has kicked off for 2022 despite financial and climate change pressures.
Despite the skyrocketing cost of salt and other materials, Moray's road treatment operations are getting into full swing.
Moray's fleet of 13 gritters have plenty of salt to use, with over 5000 tonnes currently stored at the Ashgrove Depot in Elgin.
The team looks after 581km of "priority one" routes, which get gritted first when the temperature is set to drop below 1°C.
There are 12 priority one routes in totals, with 13 gritting vehicles keeping them clear.
In total, Moray has 5000km of roads with varying levels of gritting priorities.
One shock for Moray Council in the lead up to winter 2022 has been a hike in the price of salt.
Procured from Ireland through a Scottish Government contract, Moray's salt was previously £35 per tonne but the Council now pays £55 per tonne – a 60% rise.
Since Moray Council uses around 14,000 tonnes of salt each year, this represents a nearly £300,000 rise.
Moray Council's contracts coordinator for west Moray Glen Hopkins blamed this rise on global factors, including inflation and war in Ukraine.
He said: "It's eye-watering, just so much money gone."
The roads department decide which roads to grit based on information from 25 weather stations.
Along with measuring air temperature, the stations also forecast the road surface temperature which can vary by as much as 10 degrees.
When forecasted road temperatures drop below 1°C on a priority one road, the Council sends out operators to treat it.
However, due to staffing and equipment limits, Moray's gritters only work during the day unlike the 24/7 efforts of trunk road operators.
This means gritters can be deployed during mild weather if low road temperatures are expected that evening.
A recent development to Moray's winter procedure is the introduction of a website featuring detailed information about gritting.
Senior roads maintenance engineer Grant Brotherston said: "Anyone can go onto the Moray Council website and see what treatments are happening.
"If you live on a priority one route you can actually see exactly when the gritter is going to go past your front door."
Moray's salt is housed at facilities in Elgin, Forres, Keith, Dufftown, Tomintoul and Buckie.
However, Moray's biggest salt pile lives within a specially-constructed salt dome at Elgin's Ashgrove depot.
Regularly housing over 5000 tonnes of salt, the distinctive building keeps the costly product dry.
Dry salt is more efficient than salt stored outside, with up to 50% less needing used per square meter of road.
Mr Hopkins said: "We calculated it would take seven years for the salt dome to pay for itself, with the amount of salt used.
"It has more than paid for itself now, and the operators like that it makes their job a little easier.
"They don't say a lot of good things about the management, but they do praise us for giving them better salt."
Another challenge for the roads team also comes from longer winters.
Council staff said they expect to have gritters operating until May next year due to the impact of the climate emergency.
Mr Brotherston says: "Winter for us now goes from the beginning of October into the first week of May.
"We are definitely seeing a difference."
