BEAR Scotland’s winter team has worked throughout the season to keep the South East trunk road network safe. Over the winter period so far, over 2,800 treatments were carried out, using a total of 15,548 tonnes of salt and de-icer.

Since October 2024, 16 snow days were forecast in the South East. Despite this, the winter team managed to keep disruption from the snow to a minimum. Only one day saw lengthy delays, due to incidents along the M8 caused by heavy snowfall.

The A702 at Abington saw the coldest temperature across the whole network, hitting a low of -11.3 ℃.

As well as the challenge of freezing temperatures, the South East network experienced four storms over the winter period. The most challenging was Storm Éowyn, which took place towards the end of January 2025.

BEAR Scotland’s Severe Weather Manager, Mike Smart, answered a few questions on the 2024/25 winter period.

Keeping the network safe

To ensure a safe network throughout the winter period, we monitor the road surface temperature (RST) daily to identify what procedures need to take place and where. When the RST is forecast to fall below 3℃, the network team monitors temperatures 24/7. Routes are routinely patrolled when RSTs reach 2 ℃ or and the road surface is wet or there are hazards, however to save salt and carbon emissions this year, we trialled patrolling from 1.7 ℃ on single carriageway roads and from 1.4 ℃ on motorways when the road surface is dry or damp. The carriageways are treated when the RSTs fall below 1 ℃.

Challenges

This winter has been a relatively quiet one compared to previous years. We only experienced one day with a heavy snowfall, which lead to disruption on the M8 for a few hours. Our teams worked hard to get traffic moving again as quickly and safely as possible.

The most challenging moment would have to be the red weather warning during Storm Éowyn, which brought winds of over 100mph to the South East Unit. This led to many incidents of trees falling over, power lines coming down and lorries overturning, which in turn, closed roads and bridges across the network.

Standout moments

A standout moment from winter 24/25 was how well the operations team dealt with the clear-up of debris and trees on the carriageway due to Storm Éowyn. Also, back in November, the teams that put a temporary closure in place on the Queensferry Crossing due to falling ice did a great job. The closure was very smooth due to the quick decision to divert vehicles over the Forth Road Bridge.