Lincolnshire’s gritting teams could be heading towards a record year after several cold snaps during the winter.
By the end of February around 33,029 tonnes of salt had been used – pushing close to the highest amount of 33,973 used during the 2009/10 winter.
On average gritters are called upon to keep the roads safe around eight times in March and used around 200 to 400 tonnes of salt per run.
Although the record could fall, Lincolnshire County Council says it still has 18,592 tonnes of salt instock after a recent delivery of 9,000 tonnes from Eygpt.
The county council regularly grits 1,869 miles of roads – around one third of Lincolnshire’s entire road network.
There are 43 gritting teams who go out spreading the salt and helping to keep roads clear and safe.
The gritting service costs the county around £4.6million a year to run.
Coun William Webb, executive member for highway and transportation, said: “It has been a long. cold winter and these figures underline the challenge that Lincolnshire County Council has faced over the last few months to keep the roads safe.
“Regardless of whether we break the record this year for the amount of sale used, our gritting teams have performed admirably and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them.”