Highland Council winter road condition and school closure report for Friday 19 January 2018
Maps of the Council’s gritting routes by priority and policy are available online at www.highland.gov.uk/gritting
The information provided is a summary of reports from operational staff and is intended to give a general indication of typical conditions in each area at a point in time. It is not intended to imply that any individual route is entirely snow and ice free and drivers must be aware that conditions can change rapidly and make their own assessment of conditions for travelling.
Road condition reports by The Highland Council’s Community Services for Friday 19 January 2018 are as follows:
Caithness and North Sutherland: In Caithness routes have 1-2 inches of fresh snow on them and there has been a a very hard frost and temperatures are low. Treatment is ongoing with no problems reported. High routes in North Sutherland have between 2 and 4 inches of snow on them. The rest of the routes have just a covering of fresh snow. Temperatures are very low. Some cars were stuck at Bettyhill earlier this morning but they are all clear and no other problems have been reported. As at 09:00
Ross and Cromarty: The West of the area has reported the heaviest snowfall with up to 6" in places. The Bealach Na Ba road to Applecross will be temporarily closing due to heavy drifting of up to 3ft. Over in the East there is a light dusting of snow on lower ground and up to 2" on higher routes. As at 08:33
Lochaber: Frosty roads with hard packed snow and ice in places. Roads are being ploughed and treated and footpaths are being dealt with as well. As at 09:10
Badenoch and Strathspey: Aviemore and south of the area has up to 10cms of snow of roads while the north of the area has just a light dusting. Roads are frosty with hard packed snow and ice in places and are being treated as necessary. As at 08:40
Inverness: Crews are ploughing 2 – 3 inches of drifting snow on the B862 Whitebridge - Loch Tarff road. Elsewhere there is just a 1" covering of snow which has fallen overnight on high roads and just a dusting on low roads. All routes are being gritted and bladed where required. As at 07:45
Nairn: There has been an overnight dusting of snow. Main routes are currently being treated with salt. No other known issues. As at 08:32:00
Highland has the longest road network of any council in Scotland and it is not possible to treat every road at the same time. A priority system is applied to treat the areas in greatest need first.
Trunk roads are gritted by BEAR Scotland (North West) for Transport Scotland.
School Closures:
As at 10am today a total of 4 Secondary schools (788 pupils); 19 Primary schools: (847 pupils) and 14 nurseries (139 children) are either closed due to the weather, partially closed (no school transport) or opened later than normal.
Details of the school affected can be found by visiting our website - https://www.highland.gov.uk/schoolclosures.
PLEASE NOTE other schools may close during the day so keep an eye on this website for up-to-date information. The page is updated from 7am and cleared each evening by 6pm.
Get alerts of closures on Highland Council’s Twitter and Facebook. Or phone 0800 564 2272 to get the latest pre-recorded message from head teachers regarding their school. Have the school's PIN ready when you call.