BEAR Scotland’s winter services are up and running and ready to tackle whatever adverse weather conditions affect the trunk roads and bridges in the South East of Scotland, including the Queensferry Crossing and Forth Road Bridge.
A fleet of 47 winter vehicles, plus seven footway spreaders, will carry out precautionary treatments, patrols and snow clearance across over 505km of trunk roads. Over 25,000 tonnes of salt is at the ready to stop ice forming. BEAR Scotland’s winter maintenance team works around the clock, analysing detailed weather forecasts to ensure treatments are carried out as necessary.
Effective wind shielding will continue to provide resilience on the Queensferry Crossing and new weather sensors have been installed to help predict and communicate the risk of any accretion of ice on the bridge.
Alasdair Allen, BEAR Scotland’s South East Severe Weather Manager, said: “We have over 90 dedicated, trained and experienced employees ready to deal with winter across the trunk roads and bridges that we maintain in the South East of Scotland. We will closely monitor conditions on a 24/7 basis, meaning we can react quickly when weather changes.
“As ever, we ask members of the public to ensure that their vehicles are well maintained and follow live traffic information from Traffic Scotland, especially during periods of inclement weather.”
In August this year, BEAR Scotland took over as Transport Scotland’s operating company for the Scottish Trunk Road Network Management Contract for the South East Unit until at least 2028. This extends BEAR Scotland’s reach across the country as it also has responsibility for trunk roads in the North East and North West of Scotland.
BEAR’s winter fleet includes 21 new 32-tonne eight-wheeler spreaders – some of the largest in the UK – soon to be named by members of the public via local schools and radio stations. The new vehicles will be joining favourites including ‘Mr Plow’, ‘Sir Andy Flurry’ and ‘Gritty Gritty Bang Bang’.
Transport Scotland’s online trunk road gritter tracker displays the current location of gritters in real time, and with a trail showing how recently they have passed along trunk routes across Scotland.
The winter service period runs from 1 October to 15 May each year and can be extended beyond these dates should conditions dictate.
Primary seven pupil, Roisin McKay, from Holy Cross Primary school in North Lanarkshire won BEAR Scotland’s ‘Winter Ready’ art competition to design a logo encouraging drivers to be prepared for conditions.
Winter Portal 
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