Winter Maintenance
The Council maintains roads in Shetland to allow safe movement of traffic and to minimise delays caused by adverse weather conditions. From October to March we use detailed weather forecasts from the Met Office to decide when pre-salting is needed in order to prevent the formation of ice on our main roads. Our presalting routes include all priority 1 roads.
Early morning patrols are used to check road conditions, and to start the morning treatment of icy roads or the clearing of snow when needed. Morning treatment starts at 6 am, and continues as necessary until 6 pm, occasionally later in adverse snow conditions.
The Winter Service typically consumes about 20% of our operational road maintenance budget, although this varies from year to year depending on weather conditions. While the winter service is necessary for the safety and convenience of the travelling public, money spent spreading salt does not bring any long-term benefit to the road network. We therefore seek to minimise the quantity of salt spread to keep down costs, and to minimise the environment impact that salt can have on vegetation.
The Council operates a fleet of 27 gritters covering 24 routes (3 x spares). Gritters are called out as required following an early morning inspection of the road network undertaken by seven inspectors across the network.
All roads are assigned a priority for treatment ranging from the highest of priority 1 to the lowest of priority 3. When gritters are called out they try to treat the roads of highest priority in their area before moving onto treat roads of a lower priority. By clicking the links below you will find details of our winter maintenance policy, winter driving advice, a table giving details about areas covered by the different gritting routes and maps of individual gritting routes showing treatment priorities etc.
The following link provides details of Shetland Islands Council's Winter Maintenance Policy
The following link provides advice that has been prepared by the Highways Agency in England but contains a lot of useful information about driving in adverse weather conditions.
Winter Driving Advice issued by the Highways Agency
Use the following table to identify the gritter covering your area of interest and click the link to see a map of this route.
| Description | Gritter Route Number | Click link to |
| of Route | see Map | |
| Bressay | 012 BRESSAY | Route 12 Bressay |
| Cunningsburgh, Sandwick and Levenwick | 100 SOUTH | Route 100 South |
| Murrister to Weisdale. Vementry, Clousta & Sandsound | 250 BIXTER | Route 250 Bixter |
| Everything south of Channerwick bar Levenwick Loop | 251 SUMBURGH | Route 251 Sumburgh |
| Main line Lerwick to Voe | 252 LK. NORTH | Route 252 LK North |
| Vidlin to Aith and side roads | 253 LUNNA | Route 253 Lunna |
| Scalloway, Burra and Trondra | 254 SCALLOWAY | Route 254 Scalloway |
| Eshaness to Mavis Grind and side roads | 255 ESHANESS | Route 255 Eshaness |
| Gulberwick, Black Gaet, Quarff and Fladabister | 257 LK. SOUTH | Route 257 LK South |
| Hulmalees, Sand, Reawick and Skeld | 258 REAWICK | Route 258 Reawick |
| Bridge of Walls to Dale of Walls and side roads | 259 WALLS | Route 259 Walls |
| Nesting | 260 NESTING | Route 260 Nesting |
| Scord Quarry, Tingwall, Whiteness, Weisdale & side roads | 262 LK. WEST | Route 262 LK West |
| Lerwick | 263 LERWICK | Route 263 Lerwick |
| Brae to Toft, Sullom and Muckle Roe | 265 MAVIS GRIND | Route 265 Mavis Grind |
| Ellawater to North Roe and Ollaberry | 266 NORTH ROE | Route 266 North Roe |
| Burravoe to Mid Yell via Ulsta and West Sandwick | 267 WEST YELL | Route 267 West Yell |
| Mid Yell to Cullivoe and side roads | 268 NORTH YELL | Route 268 North Yell |
| Mid Yell to Burravoe via Aywick and Reafirth | 269 EAST YELL | Route 269 East Yell |
| Unst | 270 UNST | Route 270 Unst |
| Whalsay | 271 WHALSAY | Route 271 Whalsay |
| Fetlar (tractor and trailer gritting) | 272 FETLAR | Route 272 Fetlar |
| Sandness, West Burrafirth and Hulmalee side roads | 273 SANDNESS | Route 273 Sandness |
| Brae to Mossbank via Voe and Collafirth | 277 DALES LEES | Route 277 Dales Lees |
| Old North Road, Tingwall Valley to Girlsta via Gott and Stromfirth | 279 LAXFIRTH | Route 279 Laxfirth |