GRITTERS clocked up more than 117,000 miles preparing Somerset roads for cold weather last winter.

The Somerset Council team set out 1,679 times over the winter period to ensure routes were prepared for freezing temperatures.

Workers from the council’s highways maintenance and winter service partner, Kier, faced a number of named storms and plummeting temperatures, spreading more than 6,000 tonnes of salt across the network.

This year the coldest road surface temperature was logged at -5.3C, on January 3.

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Cllr Richard Wilkins, Somerset Council’s lead member for transport and waste, said: “We’re grateful to our hardworking teams who work round the clock to treat Somerset’s key road network during the winter and help keep the county moving.

“This year they travelled an impressive number of miles – the equivalent of going more than four times around the Earth.

“The team from four depots worked throughout the night on some of our coldest days.”

Allan Rigby, general manager for Kier Transportation, added: “Over the winter months, our crews were out at all hours and we are so proud of their hard work and resilience in the toughest of conditions.

“Not only do they get out gritting, but one of our drivers also stopped in the dead of night to help an elderly resident – giving her his jacket and then calling the emergency services, going above and beyond to support the community, before continuing to keep the roads safe.”

The winter road treatment team uses weather stations across Somerset to judge whether to prepare roads, receiving special daily forecasts.

Gritting usually takes place when road surface temperatures are predicted to drop below 1C and frost or ice is expected to form.