It’s a monumental task undertaken every year, vital to ensuring that North Yorkshire remains on the move.

Our annual winter roads maintenance programme has now been launched, as our dedicated highways teams work to keep thousands of miles of roads across England’s largest county open and safe over the coming months.

We have an annual gritting budget of more than £8 million and the 5,753 miles of roads that we are responsible for are the equivalent distance from Northallerton to Tokyo in Japan.

Our gritting network routinely covers more than nearly 2,500 miles and we have 70 gritters and more than 100 farming contractors on standby.

To ensure we have enough salt for a harsh North Yorkshire winter, we start the season with 50,000 tonnes of salt stored in our barns and in salt bins and heaps. As the salt is used, we routinely top up throughout the season to maintain resilience.

The amount of salt we put down varies on the weather forecast, temperature and the amount of snow and ice. This can vary from eight to 40 grams per square metre.

We use the latest weather forecasting technology, which includes ice prediction weather stations, a 24-hour weather forecast and road temperature sensor data to decide when and where to grit.

Our gritting crews are on call 24 hours a day as soon as conditions dictate which is usually from the end of October through to the end of the winter season.

See further information on gritting operations, including road cameras and maps

Find out more about our winter maintenance plans