The winter maintenance period of our motorways and expressways usually starts on 1 November and ends in March of the following year. However, even before the official start of the winter maintenance period, our colleagues are on alert, constantly monitoring the weather situation in order to intervene on critical road sections to ensure their passability and smooth traffic flow.
We have 183 gritting spreaders (20 are brand new), 9 trucks, 13 trucks with a snow plough, 12 tractors with a plough, 1 tractor with a spreader, 18 snow blowers, 20 universal tool carriers, 41 loaders, a tractor-digger and a multicar spreader with snow plough, i.e. 299 machines in total ready to ensure the passability of our road infrastructure and to provide for the snowploughing and gritting of our motorways and expressways. More than 37 thousand tons of gritting material are ready for use. Winter maintenance is provided by 715 staff employees. Before the start of each winter season, we also check the status of drainage systems, as well as the protection of bridge structures against ice runs, we repair defects on the road pavement, we test all the winter maintenance machinery and vehicles, we train the dispatchers and operators assigned to winter maintenance service.
We maintain almost 1 200 km of roads
NDS provides winter maintenance on motorways, expressways, and 1st class roads as follows:
- Motorways......................................................... 514,15 km
- Expressways......................................……………… 223,43 km
- Selected 1st class roads............................……. 144,02 km
- Feeders, rest areas and parking lots...………….. 87,31 km
- Junctions..................................................………. 224,34 km
Spreaders working in tandem and their safe overtaking
Spreaders of gritting material can be used solo or in tandem (two or three vehicles, depending on the number of lanes on the motorway). They follow each other at a distance of 50 to 100 metres, each vehicle in its own lane. This way, the full width of the motorway can be maintained. To ensure thorough cleaning, the spreaders move at a speed of 40 to 50 km/h. When the lights show a direction arrow, it is safe to overtake the spreader in the direction of the arrow. When the lights show a cross, it means no overtaking. Drivers do not realize that when overtaking spreaders in tandem, the overtaking vehicle gets on an untreated road surface and can go into a skid very quickly. If we see a spreader on the road with its blade raised, we can safely overtake it in the direction of the arrow. The safety of drivers and minimising traffic disruptions remains a priority. We would like to remind all drivers to keep a safe distance, pay attention to the light signals on road maintenance vehicles, and adapt their driving to the actual weather conditions.