Welcome to the Highways Service Information Centre
Essex Highways crews work hard to ensure road network is safe to travel on.
The gritters are ready, the salt barn is full and the crews which keep Essex’s roads safe are primed for cold weather as the winter service for 2025/26 begins.
More than 2,000 miles of road in Essex are treated over the winter, which is about 40% of the road network.
Teams gritted a total of 136,045 miles of road during 2024/25 to ensure road users remain safe in cold and icy conditions.
Essex Highways prioritises main roads, bus routes with four or more buses a day and access to important infrastructure such as hospitals and schools.
51 routes are supported by 55 gritters with snow ploughs and two mini-spreaders. Around 20 of these vehicles received new names in last year’s gritter naming competition, including:
Around 104 drivers, who are normally part of the road maintenance crews, help manage the winter service.
The gritters are typically out spreading between 1am and 3am to ensure highways are safe for use during peak travel hours, with priority routes taking around three hours to complete.
Councillor Tom Cunningham, Cabinet Member for Highways, Infrastructure and Sustainable Transport at Essex County Council, said: “With British weather being so changeable, it is vital our crews are ready and prepared for winter conditions to hit the county so residents can travel across it as safely as possible.
“Our crews work hard to keep priority routes usable, but residents must also take precautions and adjust how they drive in icy and snowy conditions to prevent the risk of accidents. By working together, we can ensure the roads in Essex stay as safe and accident-free as possible.”
Visit the winter service page for more information.
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