Road gritting and salting in Dorset

During winter, we make daily decisions about when and where to salt based on local forecasts for five distinct climate 'domains', shown on the map below. We will decide whether to salt each domain or the whole salting network.

Salting/gritting updates

See when we last treated the main network (red routes) and when we are scheduled to treat them again.

As we don't routinely treat community links (blue routes) previous and next treatments are not shown for these routes. You can find out when we do, by following us on Twitter @TravelDorset

Salting/gritting map

Use the map below to see the network of roads we will treat and plough during the winter. Use the layer control panel (on the right of the map, third icon down) to turn layers on and off, including ploughing routes and more.   

Guide to the map

 Salting network

We will treat the main salting network, consisting of 684 miles of road, when conditions are damp and road temperatures are forecast near freezing or before snow. The A31, A35 (west of Bere Regis) and A303 trunk roads are treated by Highways England.

 Community links

A network of community links will also be salted when snow is forecast to connect more isolated communities to the main salted network. After snow has fallen we will plough and continue to salt/grit these roads.

 Ploughing routes

During severe snow we may need to fall back to priority ploughing routes to keep the main north-south and east-west roads open.