Temperatures are set to drop below freezing tonight Temperatures in Liverpool are set to drop below freezing tonight and the city council's gritters are already out on the roads. When the weather gets cold, a number of the local authority's services kick into action. One of the key services required is gritting in order to try and make roads around the city safe for drivers, particularly during the morning rush.
During last week's cold snap, freezing temperatures saw the city's gritters out on four consecutive nights. In total 48 runs took place using 3,352 tonnes of grit over 600km of the city's roads. As well as its fleet of gritters, the council also has a number of quad bikes that spread anti-freeze around the city centre.
Last week 2,688 litres were used trying to keep the city centre moving. Both the gritters and the quad bikes are back out this afternoon ahead of plummeting temperatures. The council's map shows which routes are covered during this process.
As you can see on the map, there are a number of red routes around the city centre, these are the areas where the quad bikes are deployed. The rest of the map is made up of purple routes, spread around the wider city - these are the roads traversed by the council's gritters when the cold weather sets in. Weather forecasts show that temperatures in Liverpool are expected to reach minus one at around 7am.
Last week the cold weather caused disruption on the Merseyrail network but as things stand the operator is not expe.