We grit roads in Hounslow using six gritting vehicles when it is necessary. Gritting helps to:
- stop ice from forming
- reduce the amount of snow that settles
When we grit
Our winter season is from 14 November and 11 March.
During the season we monitor weather conditions all day every day and make appropriate decisions.
We take information provided by a specialist winter weather forecasting bureau. This provides forecasts four times a day throughout the season. The forecasts predict the possibility and timing of freezing road temperatures or snow.
We usually grit late at night or very early in the morning. We try to avoid gritting during rush hour periods.
We time gritting to make sure we treat the whole gritting network before ice forms or snow falls.
Where we grit
We have gritting routes covering 82 miles of road in the borough. We grit on:
- principal roads
- classified roads
- important access roads
- some, but not all, bus routes
Our routes are designed to cover critical areas such as hospitals, fire stations and police stations.
We cannot grit the entire 268 miles of road network in the borough because it would take too much time, cost too much and cause too much disruption.
Gritting routes
You can see our gritting routes in detail on the Hounslow Highways website:
We review these routes every year after the winter season. To request adding a road to the gritting network for the following season, contact us.
Where we do not grit
We do not grit the M4 and M25 motorways. These are managed by Highways England.
We do not grit the following roads, which are managed by Transport for London (TfL):
- A4 (Bath Road, Great West Road, Cedars Road, Ellesmere Road, Hogarth Lane, Great Chertsey Road)
- A30 (Great South West Road)
- A406 (Gunnersbury Avenue)
- A205 (Kew Bridge Road)
- A312 (The Parkway, The Causeway, Faggs Road, Harlington Road West, Harlington Road East, Uxbridge Road, Hampton Road West)
- A316 (Country Way, Great Chertsey, Alexandra Avenue, Burlington Lane)
Report missed gritting
If a road is on a gritting route and has not been gritted, you can report it on the Hounslow Highways website:
A road may be very icy but is not on our grittiing route. In such cases, although you can contact us to make a request for us to grit the road, any request is subject to route priority, conditions and available resources.
As demand for gritting is very high when the weather is extemely cold, it is unlikely we would be able to meet your request.
What we do for snow
When snow is forecast, we spread salt on the roads to slow the rate of snow settling. This requires much more salt than is needed to prevent ice forming.
When snow fall reaches a certain rate, salt can no longer prevent it from accumulating. It is not practical to use snow ploughs to clear snow from the roads in Hounslow because:
- there is too much traffic
- there are too many parked cars
- there is no space to push the snow into
With heavy snowfall we continue to spread salt on top of the snow, which makes it melt quicker.
Pavement gritting
For practical reasons we do not grit pavements and footways in the same way we grit roads.
We only grit pavements at certain locations such as bus stops, tube stations or at the main entrance to schools and hospitals.
We do not provide grit bins and we cannot supply salt.
Local builders’ merchants, hardware stores and other suppliers often sell rock salt for private use.
