Amey, an infrastructure support service provider based in Oxford, Oxfordshire have announced the return of their popular gritter-naming appeal.
To date, this has led to over 3,000 winter-themed gritter names being submitted by the Scottish public for consideration.
Entries for this winter will be accepted until Monday 16th January 2023.
The newly named gritters will join classics such as “Sir Grits Hoy”, “Yes Sir, Ice Can Boogie”, “Skid Vicious” and “Sweet Child O’ Brine”.
Winners from last year’s competition and new additions to the fleet for the 2022/2023 winter season include:
- “Jack Jarvice” and “Victor McSprayed” (Jack Jarvis & Victor McDade from TV’s “Still Game”)
- “Gritney Spears” (Britney Spears)
- “Sir David Attenbrrrrrr” (Sir David Attenborough)
- “Snowey Tribbiani” (from TV’s “Friends”)
- “Betty White-out” (“Golden Girl” Betty White)
- “Snowing Me, Snowing You” (Abba song)
Scotland’s tradition of coming up with inventive and fun names for their gritter fleet has gone viral on social media and made headlines around the world.
In December 2020, Amey’s South-West fleet, with their distinctive bright orange livery attracted the attention of IRN-BRU®, with gritter “Grits You Thru” joining the winter fleet.
And in 2021, another iconic Scottish treat joined the fleet with staff at family-run bakery Tunnock’s choosing “Caramelt Wafer”.
Gritter names can be submitted to Amey online via the SW Trunk Roads website: www.swtrunkroads.scot Updates on the gritter naming appeal will also appear on the Facebook and Twitter channels: @SWTrunkRoads
The website also hosts a free online Santa’s Grotto, which features festive activities for young people, including colouring-in sheets, quizzes and things to make and do. The grotto can be found here.
To prepare for this Winter, Amey have amassed 24,000 tonnes of road salt, 231,000 litres of brine, and 75,000 litres of potassium acetate, overseen by 8 Winter Service Duty Officers (WSDO), providing a 24/7 presence on the network.
The 17,500-tonne capacity salt barn at Amey’s Polmadie Depot, will continue to provide support in tackling adverse weather conditions across the network.
The Winter Service is comprised of 26 Frontline Routes, 15 Patrol Routes, and 12 Footway Routes (requiring 197km of winter treatment).
The service is delivered by 56 Econ gritters and snowploughs, 16 new footpath gritters, 12 tractors, and 115 Highways Operatives. Winter Patrol vehicles are equipped with the latest Mobile Condition Monitoring Equipment and are fitted with Dash Cams.
In addition, an innovative liquid brine solution is being used on all our roads and footpaths, to provide a more effective clearance of ice and snow.
Scotland’s gritter fleet can be followed live on the Traffic Scotland Gritter Tracker.
