16 February 2021

Roads crews, partner contractors and farmers resume snowdrift clearing

Aberdeenshire Council Roads Service along with partner contractors and farmers have been continuing throughout today reopening and widening roads affected by drifting at the weekend.  

This work will continue over the next few days on a prioritised basis and road users are again being asked to be patient while work is ongoing on our network of over 3,300 miles of roads and more than 800 miles of footway which we maintain.

Clearing 3,300 miles of road is the equivalent of driving from John O’Groats to Land’s End and back…… then doing it all again for a second time!

That demonstrates the scale of the task we have been facing this week getting the road network fully operational again.

Many of the roads were affected by snow drifts up to 14 feet deep and some roads had extremely deep drifts extending over miles of road including the A93 at Glenshee and the A920 Dufftown to Huntly ‘Corsemaul Road’, which we managed to get open again with our neighbours in Moray.

The list of roads which still remain closed due to drifting include: A93 Glenshee (at snow gates), A939 Lecht (at snow gates), A939 Gairnshiel - Colnabaichin, A941 Cabrach, B974 Cairn O’Mount (at snow gates) and the B976 Crathie to Gairnshiel, but work is continuing on these roads at present.  Many minor roads will still be closed, impassable, or only passable with extreme care.

Further information on our winter service operations can be found at:
https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/roads-and-travel/roads/maintenance/winter-maintenance/

As noted previously, in light of the extreme cold weather road surfaces will be severely affected by pot-holing in places. 

We are now working through a programme of repairs on a prioritised basis and road users are therefore asked to continue driving with appropriate caution.

The advice remains unchanged: Essential journeys only - stay at home if you can - stay safe!