USERS on Cheshire’s 5000km road network face the threat from the effects of rain followed by rapidly falling temperatures later tonight (Monday, January 21) and tomorrow morning (Tuesday, January 22).

And Cheshire County Council are warning motorists to be on their guard against treacherous stretches of ice forming freezing stretches even on treated roads.

The authority expects to again mobilise the whole of its 33-strong gritting fleet tonight, firstly on the high routes to the east of the county and then on all the primary and secondary gritting routes in the whole of Cheshire.

Melvin Swallow, Cheshire’s Strategic Network Manager, said “The problem we face tonight is that in the eastern side of the county, the rain is forecast to last until around 9 to 10pm and any salt that we do put down could be less effective.

“But after that, the skies are due to clear quickly and as a result road surface temperatures are expected to dip below freezing point – probably before midnight. This gives us very little time to mobilise our gritters and ensure that the roads are treated before the ice forms.

“In addition, we are also anticipating that we could get some accumulations of wet snow on the trans-Pennine routes and this could make driving conditions very difficult.

“Furthermore, we are also expecting road surface temperatures across the remainder of the county to fall below freezing in the early hours of tomorrow morning. Whilst all our gritting route network will have been treated by this time, we are concerned that with the amount of rainfall Cheshire has experienced over the last few weeks, there could be several locations where the salt solution is diluted or washed away by run off from adjacent fields and ditches.

“It could therefore be that icy stretches could form even on roads that have been treated.

All in all, it is likely to be a really difficult night and motorists need to take extreme care and only make journeys that are absolutely necessary.”

Cheshire County Council will continue to monitor the conditions overnight, through the Met Office, its own ice prediction system and on-the-ground inspections.

“This will be followed up with further gritting as the circumstances demand.” added Mr Swallow.

Motorists can check the latest information on Cheshire County Council’s website www.cheshire.gov.uk/winter