Sign up for our daily email!
Every morning over the winter months, we'll send an email providing a general overview of the road conditions, as provided by our crews who are out monitoring the roads from the wee small hours.
What to expect:
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An entertaining (we hope) email will be sent to subscribers between 6.30am-7.00am every day over the winter months. This will provide general local road conditions (including state highways).
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That road conditions can change rapidly. We can't list every patch of ice, nor can our crews be everywhere at once.
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Carry chains all winter and know when and how to fit them. Especially if you're driving over the Crown Range Road - you will need them.
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We'll post the morning report on our Facebook and Twitter page. We'll also post updates during the day when conditions change.
Whitelisting our emails
Our road reports are sent via a cloud based system. They are sometimes automatically classed as 'promotional' by certain email providers and may end up in your 'promotions tab', particularly if you're using a web based provider like Gmail or yahoo.
This means that you might not get an alert when the report arrives in your inbox. However, this is easily changed if you add our address to your safe senders list (or whitelist) – more info on how to do this here (https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/whitelisting/).
Community text alerts
You can also sign up to join our community text alert database. This means we'll send you a text message and let you know about unforeseen issues in your area, i.e. road closures, extended water-shutdowns, ice and snow affecting roads or any other other emergencies in your community.
Winter driving tips
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Carry chains and know how and when to fit them. If you regularly travel over the Crown Range chains must be carried all winter.
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Accelerate smoothly and brake gently.
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Plan extra travel time and slow down.
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Four-wheel drive vehicles are no safer than other vehicles, especially downhill.
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Make sure all car windows are free of snow and ice - you can receive an instant fine if you don't.
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Check the road conditions before you leave.
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Be aware that shaded areas may be icy all day.
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Ice can occur at any time of day.
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Take extra care on bridges.
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Double your following distances.
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Never overtake a grit truck.
Clean your windscreen
Take your chains
Check the weather
When will my street be cleared?
When ice and snow hit we prioritise the main transport links first.
Check out the maps below for priority roads and winter maintenance service levels.
What is CMA?
CMA (Calcium Magnesium Acetate) is a biodegradable and environmentally friendly/non-corrosive de-icing agent that is sprayed on the roads to stop ice from forming to about -7 degrees.
We typically use a combination of grit and CMA however there are potential advantages to reducing gritting and increasing CMA usage such as:
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No grit to clean up reducing cost and environmental impact
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Fewer traffic accidents on loose grit
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CMA lasts for up to 7 days, whereas grit can be displaced by traffic onto the verge after an hour
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Overall significantly lower cost
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Less grit on the side of the roads will improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists
The downsides to CMA are that it can be removed by rain so can be a challenge to reapply quickly, and while it can be applied in light snow to stop ice packing down it will be less effective in a heavy snow event. Should there be a heavy snow event we will still attend to that in the usual way by ploughing and gritting.