WINTER MAINTENANCE
THE CHILL FACTOR
Nik Tozer and Gordon Whyte of The Nurture Group’s gritting operation, issue a reminder about the pitfalls an unusually cold winter can bring, and howFMs can be prepared.
This year’s record temperatures has had direct consequences on infrastructure. While the July heatwave is now becoming a memory, its impact will be long remembered. Building owners have seen first-hand the importance of preparing for unforeseen circumstances, which is often underrated.
Given the scorching summer we’ve had, it can feel strange talking about snow, frost, and ice. Yet there are some key lessons to take into the autumn and winter. First and foremost, early preparation ensures that building and facilities managers are not caught by surprise should weather conditions change unexpectedly.
Early preparedness does not mean stockpiling vast quantities of salt ‘just in case’, although we will talk about the need for adequate supply later. It is about identifying problem areas before they become harder to address by conducting an initial inspection in the warmer months.
You might be surprised to know that the traditional gritting season is not just confined to December or January. Take the infamous Beast from the East in 2018 as an example, which spanned the last week of February and the first week of March that year. No doubt memories of that phenomenon still come back year on year, and again, shows what can happen when our weather does something unusual.
It is, in fact, typically from the preceding March that we tend to start seeing winter gritting enquiries, either to commence services later in the year, or to renew for the forthcoming 12 months. But given the unpredictability of weather conditions in recent years, it can never be too early to start thinking about the colder season ahead.
The July heatwave had a significant impact on the economy, bringing down productivity and disrupting transport operations, not to mention the toll of heatstroke and dehydration on office workers and in schools. At the other end of the temperature scale, freezing and wintery conditions can have similar outcomes. Research shows that snow and ice can prevent workers from getting to their jobs and pose health risks if they are able to
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in the form of unsafe pathways. But there are also the consequential frozen pipes, doors and windows, which can all contribute to a myriad of health and safety challenges. Realising the areas where accidents are more likely to occur, and why they are so vulnerable, makes it more straightforward to plan contingency and safety measures well ahead of the new season. This is also essential for deciding where to place salt bins for easy access and how much will likely be needed throughout the period.
Similarly, knowing how the site reacts to different temperature ranges factors into this planning. Frost can still form on car windscreens even if the path surrounding the tyres is clear, due to warm(er) energy from the Sun being absorbed by the ground. So while the overnight air temperature might dip, pavements and parking areas can be a good few degrees milder. That does not mean there is no risk, however.
At The Nurture Group, we draw on the Met Office’s Open Site data platform to guide our clients on when to apply salt and at what level. As alluded to previously, the combination of different temperatures at a site influences where the priority areas are, and therefore, what actions need to be taken at certain trigger points i.e. when the temperature reaches a certain level.
Year after year, the UK seems to struggle to cope with adverse weather, be that heatwaves or deep cold snaps. Our varied climate makes a challenge to put a definitive amount on grit quantities as is the case for the likes of Scandinavia which face heavy snow year-on-year. That challenge is also felt when considering yearly budgets.
Amongst all the lessons the summer heatwave has unearthed, preparing for the worst-case scenario is perhaps the most crucial of them all. And if the world’s climate continues changing at its current rate, once-rare weather conditions will only become more common. Facility and business owners, like all of us in our daily lives, will need to adapt, be agile, and take further preventative measures to put themselves in the best possible position for whatever the coming season may bring.
www.nurture-group.co.uk/services/winter-gritting twitter.com/TomorrowsFM
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