Gritters powered by electricity will join North Yorkshire’s winter fleet in a bid to save money and reduce harmful carbon emissions.
As part of a trial for this coming winter season, NY Highways has added two gritters each with an electric body to its fleet, supplied by Bucher Municipal.
The vehicles have an anticipated fuel saving of up to 20 per cent compared to standard, diesel-powered gritters.
The gritting bodies which deploy the salt will run on an electric battery that can charge in just over 30 minutes.
The battery will be able to do multiple runs before needing to be recharged.
The task to keep the 5,753-mile network of roads across North Yorkshire, which is England’s largest county, safe and open during the winter months is a mammoth undertaking each year.
North Yorkshire County Council’s executive member for highways and transportation, Cllr Keane Duncan, said: “The electric-bodied gritters are a first for the council’s winter service delivery.
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“Innovation is high on our agenda and it is another way we are showing our commitment to achieving net carbon neutrality by 2030.
“The two gritters don’t have any hydraulics which mean there’s less chance of mechanical failure.
"This increased reliability is vital when we are against the clock trying to deliver the best winter service that we can.”
The council is also using state-of-the-art technology to monitor North Yorkshire’s vast network of roads throughout the winter months to help ensure routes can be kept open during severe weather.
Artificial intelligence, computer modelling and live data as well as cutting-edge sensors to check road surface temperatures and moisture levels will be used to closely monitor the roads.
Alongside up-to-the-minute weather forecasts, a network of 27 weather stations at key locations across the county provide real-time information to help the council make accurate, informed decisions about when and where to grit roads.
The stations include solar-powered cameras that relay live images of road conditions to the county council’s website, where they are viewed hundreds of thousands of times each winter to help people plan their journeys.
Now, the council is building on a working relationship of more than 20 years with Vaisala, a global leader in weather, environmental, and industrial measurements, to improve routine and winter monitoring of its network of 5,800 miles of road.
North Yorkshire has this year begun using Vaisala’s artificial intelligence technology, and continues to work closely with the company as its systems and technology evolve.
As a result, thorough surveys of the condition of the road network can be undertaken more quickly.
As highways officers drive the network, the video technology automatically surveys the roads and identifies defects.
It processes the data within a few hours.
This gives the highways team a visual snapshot of the whole network, capturing useful data about the road condition and road signs very quickly and enabling them to target resources most efficiently.
The authority is also trialling Vaisala Wx Horizon, a system that uses real-time weather information, historic weather and road condition data alongside computer modelling to help identify required winter treatments.
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