Winter maintenance

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Winter service is an important part of Transport for Buckinghamshire's (TfB) maintenance work. It involves:

• salting major roads when there is a risk of ice
• clearing snow
• reacting to other weather related emergencies

Read more about how we decide when to grit the roads and information about our salt bins.

Gritting routes

There are 3 separate gritting routes, precautionary, snow, and secondary.

Snow routes and secondary routes are the reduced network we revert to these in times of very severe weather.

Precautionary routes

These are the most important routes to keep everyone moving. The routes consist of 1405km of the county's A and B road network, about 44% of the total network.

Click on each route to see the map. If you are unable to see the maps, there is also a text summary for each route.

Aylesbury Vale area

Gritting routes from the Gawcott depot

• Gritting route GA1
• Gritting route GA2
• Gritting route GA3
• Gritting route GA super route

Gritting routes from the Aylesbury depot

• Gritting route GL1
• Gritting route GL2
• Gritting route GL3
• Gritting route GL4
• Gritting route GL5
• Gritting route GL6
• Gritting route GL super route

Wycombe area

• Gritting route HX1
• Gritting route HX2
• Gritting route HX3
• Gritting route HX4
• Gritting route HX5
• Gritting route HX6
• Gritting route HX super route

Chiltern and South Buckinghamshire areas

• Gritting route AM1
• Gritting route AM2
• Gritting route AM3
• Gritting route AM4
• Gritting route AM5
• Gritting route AM6
• Gritting route AM super route

Snow routes

When heavy snow comes, we may move to a 24hr and focus on the county's most strategic routes (around 22% of the overall network). This will continue as long as it snows (normally around 3 days) during which time only some A and B roads will be gritted. 

Once the snow has cleared, we go back to the precautionary routes as soon as possible.

View the Buckinghamshire countywide snow route for 2021/22. 

Secondary routes

These may be gritted before a heavy snow or if the snow carries on for a long time. The are done after the primary routes have been cleared and treated.

They include the following highway network:

• classified roads which are not included in the primary salting network
• unclassified roads serving communities of 200 dwellings or more and unclassified roads with a gradient of 10% or less

We may also salt cycleways and footways in main shopping areas and other key pedestrian and cycle facilities. The secondary salting network will be treated after the formation of ice or fall of snow in accordance with the Operational Plan.

Weather warnings from the Met Office

Weather warnings generated by the Met Office Weather Widget

Did you know?

• Precautionary salting covers around 1405km of road
• We have over 1,000 salt bins across Buckinghamshire
• A typical grit run uses 65 tonnes of salt (pre-wet mix) or 85 tonnes if used dry
• We have 25 gritting vehicles across the County