Gritting priorities and routes
Our gritting service runs from October to April across Edinburgh.
We have a fleet of gritting vehicles on standby 24 hours a day during this time – including Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
Certain major roads, known as trunk roads, are the responsibility of Transport Scotland, for example
- A720 Edinburgh bypass
- M8
- M9.
Contact Transport Scotland to report problems on these roads.
Priority system for gritting
We use a priority system for gritting roads, pavements and cycle paths in Edinburgh. This includes main traffic and walking routes, all bus routes and roads leading to hospitals police and fire stations.
We use weather reports to decide which priority routes need to be gritted.
Outside of normal working hours, 7.30am to 4pm Monday to Friday, only priority 1 routes will be treated.
During snow conditions, we’ll use all our available resources to maintain priority 1 routes and then other routes in priority order.
Road gritting routes
Priority 1 road routes are treated first and include important principal roads, all bus routes and roads that lead to
- fire stations
- police stations
- ambulance depots
- hospitals
- clinics
- care homes
- schools
Bus park and ride sites are also treated as road priority 1 and during periods of extreme wintery weather, treatment will extend to their parking spaces
- Ingliston
- Hermiston
- Straiton
Priority 2 road routes cover some roads which support the Priority 1 network but may be challenging to access. Treatment will depend on the weather forecast.
Priority 3 road routes cover residential streets and cul-de-sacs. Treatment will depend on the weather forecast.
View a map of priority 1 and priority 2 routes.
Pavement gritting routes
Priority 1 pavement routes typically cover the busy pavements, including the city centre and higher altitude areas to the south and south-west of the city. Routes that will be treated first lead to
- hospitals
- clinics
- care homes
- schools.
Wherever possible, we’ll pre-treat these routes when ice and snow are forecast.
We will also assess the local weather conditions in areas to decide where and if we need to grit the whole route or part of the pavement route.
Local Areas – we’ll treat other pavements depending on resources and the weather forecast.
Find your nearest grit bin and how to use it on your path and street.
View a map of priority 1 and priority 2 routes..
Off-road cycle path gritting routes
We’ll grit priority 1 cycle path routes first. Areas treated include
- Middle Meadow Walk
- Leamington Walk in Bruntsfield Links
- Innocent Railway Path, between St Leonards Lane and The Jewel at ASDA
- sections of the Caledonian Cycle Track, North Edinburgh Cycle Network.
Local areas - we’ll treat other off road paths depending on resources and the weather forecast. Find your nearest grit bin and how to use it on your path and street.
