Updated: Birmingham gritting update – Dec 23

17:45

A word of warning to be careful of icicles and/or lumps of ice that could fall off buildings.

Hand crews will be out again in the early hours of the morning treating footways in the city centre and other local shopping centres in preparation for an expected busy shopping day on Christmas Eve.    

Also, a warning for drivers not to be over-confident on clearer roads as low temperatures still carry the risk of black ice and hoar-frost.

Update 2.30pm: All routes due to be treated from 20:00

10:51

All carriageways were in fact treated at 10pm rather than in the early hours due to changing weather conditions. Hand crews also treated city centre footways and spot gritting continued throughout the network.

We are now in a position to look at secondary roads - important link roads to the primary routes - and widen the boundary of footpath gritting in the city centre. Plus, we will pay attention to clearing slush on the city centre footways in order to avoid that freezing.

And we continue to rely on our sensors around the network, which can tell us how much salt is already down.

We would ask people to consider their own personal preparedness ie dressing in warm clothing; safe driving ie making sure their windscreens are clear; and good neighbourliness ie keeping an eye on those who might be older or more vulnerable.

Winter maintenance and gritting plans

Winter weather travel tips