Highways teams thanked for keeping Devon moving over festive break
Devon County Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways, Stuart Hughes, has thanked highways teams and staff in the Highways Operations Control Centre (HOCC) for their ‘exceptional’ work in keeping Devon moving over the festive break.
While many people were enjoying a well-earned break, highways teams across Devon worked around-the-clock, sometimes in freezing temperatures, responding to incidents so that Devon’s 2,000 mile-network of main roads kept running smoothly.
From 1pm on Friday 22 December through to 8am on Tuesday 2 January, Skanska, the council’s highways maintenance contractor, responded to 278 reports of debris or obstructions on the road network. These included fallen trees, landslips, fuel spills, and collisions.
There were 188 calls relating to surface water on the roads or blocked drains, 49 reports of hazardous trees, which required a tree surgeon and 23 calls about ice.
During the cold snap between Christmas Day night to the morning of 29 December, when road temperatures dropped as low as -3.8C, teams were out in force between 11pm and 3am gritting the roads
The response was coordinated by the HOCC who kept the public informed via regular updates on its Twitter feed @DevonAlert.
Councillor Stuart Hughes, Devon County Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways, said: “I want to thank all the highways teams, engineers and staff who worked through the festive period for their hard work.
“Their work was exceptional, a testament to their professionalism. It also shows how effective social media can be in keeping people well informed and sharing important safety advice as well as enabling the public to help inform us of incidents in their community quickly.
“However the potential remains for some difficult driving conditions, especially for high-sided vehicles, and fallen branches or trees may block some roads.
“There may be restrictions on exposed roads or bridges and I would urge the public to continue to drive carefully, leave plenty of time for journeys and to monitor @DevonAlert for updates.”
