Updates: Heavy snow overnight bring treacherous travelling conditions

Heavy snow overnight has brought treacherous driving conditions to Flintshire.

Flintshire Council has advised people not to travel.

@FlintshireCC advise NOT TO TRAVEL – weather and road conditions are severe & there is significant snowfall.

— Flintshire Council (@FlintshireCC) March 10, 2023

The council has been working around the clock to keep roads clear by deploying extra vehicles and gritting crews.

The crews have been out all night, ploughing and gritting roads, and have been concentrating on the priority routes, which are the main roads.

“It’s been pretty tough, challenging conditions to be honest. ”

“The crews we’ve got gritting crews out all night they’ve been out ploughing and gritting all night we’ve had extra vehicles on.”

“We normally have 12 gritters outs but we’ve had the spare vehicle out and two extra vehicles as well,” said Katie Wilby, Flintshire Chief Officer Streetscene and Transportation to BBC Radio Wales this morning.

“The council has been focusing on the priority routes, which are the main roads, and has spread approximately 360 tonnes of snow salts this morning.”

“They have also gritted around 2360 kilometres of road in the last 36 hours.”

Ms Wilby said that there had been “significant snowfall overnight, with some areas seeing up to 40 centimetres of snow on high ground.”

A thick layer of snow left A55 impassable at Broughton and Dobshill earlier this morning.

One lane has now in both directions but conditions remain treacherous.

A traffic report for the are states: “One lane blocked and queueing traffic due to accident and snow on A55 Westbound from J36 A5104 Mold Road (Warren Bank Interchange, Broughton) to J35 A550 (Dobbs Hill, Dobshill). Camera shows traffic is getting through.”

Snow ploughs are reported to be trying to clear the road, Phil Clay is stuck on that section of A55 has told us trucks are losing traction on the hill up towards Dobshill.

⚠Road Impassible⚠

⛔#A55 westbound between J36A #Broughton & J35 #Dobshill currently blocked due to snow❄

Avoid the area & take extra care. #TrafficWalesAlert pic.twitter.com/4AhLj5Zskw

— Traffic Wales North & Mid (@TrafficWalesN) March 10, 2023

An amber warning for snow and ice is in place until 9am, and a yellow warning remains until 2 pm. ‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌​

Forecasters have said that snow accumulations will be quite variable but in places, enough to close roads and may make access to some communities difficult or impossible. ‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌​

The snowfall may bring down some trees and branches and potentially affect utility lines. ‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌​

Any freezing rain will give treacherous conditions underfoot, even if snow amounts are low. ‌

Speaking to BBC Radio Wales, Katie Wilby, Chief Officer Streetscene and. Transportation she said:
“We’ve gritted around 2360 kilometres of road in the last 36 hours.”

“We will see some disruption today to some of our services so our waste and recycling collection rounds won’t be going out this morning, unfortunately, but we have made arrangements to collect with residual waste again tomorrow morning.”

“We will see some disruption, unfortunately, it’s inevitable with this level of snow.”

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