This article was published in Highways Magazine, December 2013. Multihog Marketing Manager, Josh Sweeney, looks at the importance of an adaptable highway maintenance operation building on the experience of a Multihog customer, David Mazurke, at Bradford MBC.

1. 18 WINTER MAINTENANCE
DECEMBER 2013
www.highwaysmagazine.co.uk
Adaptability is key
With winter approaching Josh Sweeney, strategic marketing manager at Multihog UK,
looks at the importance of adaptability within highway maintenance operations
First of all, let me begin with a
declaration of my former naivety.
Before working at Multihog UK,
whilst studying at university, for me
winter seemed bizarrely perceived
as some sort of unofficial bank
holiday on standby which was to be
claimed at the first sight of snow.
It is now apparent of course that
this was an opinion formulated
on the basis of experiences in the
education system, surrounded by
students, rather than any reality.
Indeed, winter can be a woeful time
to a number of people for a variety
of reasons. Plummeting temperatures
and heavy snow can cause extensive
disruption to the transport network
which in turn impacts on us all in some
shape or form. It is estimated that the
total cost of delayed journeys to both
businesses and individuals is estimated
to be around £280 million a day in
England alone.
My first winter working with Multihog
emphasised the impact of ‘snow days’
(which I had previously viewed lightheartedly) on the local community and
economy when director Nick Leadley
volunteered a Multihog to plough and
grit a rural village as it was unsafe for
the local council’s conventional winter
vehicles to access the narrow lanes.
At the time councillor Dave Harling,
executive member for regeneration at
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council,
stated: “The weather has caused real
issues for local residents and now thanks
to Nick, it is safer for people to get to
and from their homes and school.”
In this instance, potential devastation
and isolation were averted thanks to the
resilience of a local firm but there is no
doubt that winter maintenance planners
always have a challenge on their hands
because the weather, by its very nature,
is volatile and inevitably adds to this. To
me, this unpredictability associated with
the British weather really accentuates
the importance of an adaptable highway
maintenance team and tools, especially
for winter resilience.
Preparation from practice
David Mazurke is the group manager
at Bradford Metropolitan District
Council. He recently spoke at a winter
maintenance event for public service
excellence in which he explained
how his local authority are prepared
to overcome future challenges from
these experiences.
He said: “Since the heavy snow
back in February 2009 and the
subsequent severe winter in 2010
Bradford Metropolitan District Council
planned to increase their winter
maintenance resilience.
“ The areas we looked at in detail were:
Salt stocks and salt usage
Fleet improvement
Route planning
Footway gritting.
“Resilience has improved immensely
since February 2009 but even the winter
of 2012/13 presented the authority with
a new challenge of the ever increasing
discipline of winter maintenance.
“Back in March 2013 the whole country
encountered its coldest March for
50 years. Easterly winds were forecast
from as early as 21 March, to reach
40mph through the night and road
surface temperatures dropping to as low
as -10°C. By the time this weather front
had reached high ground, the winds had
turned into blizzard conditions of up to
50mph, blowing snow off the fields and
onto the highways causing two to three
foot high snowdrifts.”
Isolated communities
Mazurke adds: “On 24 March A
classified roads on high ground at
1,000 feet were closed. By the 25th
the highway maintenance section
which I led was receiving reports from
contact centres, police and ambulance
services that across the district there
were several isolated communities
who could not leave their houses to
travel to shops, etc. The NHS was also
struggling to deliver essential medical
supplies to vulnerable people in these
isolated communities.
“One particular road in Bradford, aptly
named Long Lane, is a mile in length
and has a six to eight foot wall either
side of the road which was covered in
snow the whole length.”
Bradford’s winter maintenance section
were then forced to call in emergency
equipment as a last resort including
backhoe loaders and local 4x4 tractors
to clear the snow. It took over three
days to reach the isolated community.
“If the section had in its fleet a snow
blower this community could have
been reached in less than eight hours,”
notes Mazurke. “Scores of roads in the
area were not cleared until the Easter
weekend and additional machinery
was called in for snow clearance. So,
despite our efforts to increase our
winter maintenance resilience over the
last four years we had not planned for
isolated communities, but for 2013/14

2. DECEMBER 2013
we have now considered a specialist
multifunctional snow blower.”
Multi-purpose maintenance
The Multihog MH90 is a multi-purpose
maintenance vehicle which enables
organisations to deliver a lean approach
to conventional operations because of
its adaptability for all situations. The core
idea is to maximise customer value whilst
minimising waste, simply creating more
value for customers with fewer resources.
Mazurke was first impressed by the
productivity of the machine when the
council initially looked at the Multihog
and road planer attachment for the
council’s permanent road repair scheme
earlier this year.
The road registered Multihog is not only
faster, safer and more efficient in many
standard practices it undertakes, but
its versatility enables the end-user the
ability for all-seasonal utilisation. This in
turn produces a variety of operational
benefits as well as reducing overall costs.
Because of this the Multihog is also
likely to be re-considered for its road
planing ability next time round, on hot
rolled asphalt road routes, when the
Tour de France 2014 travels through the
Bradford district next July.
WINTER MAINTENANCE 19
DECEMBER 2013
Mazurke’s experiences at Bradford
Metropolitan District Council highlight
three important points: firstly, the
unpredictability of winter, secondly, the
severe impact it can have, and finally, the
necessity of adaptability of resources.
From these experiences over the
last winter, the council can now be
equipped because of the highway
maintenance section’s ability to utilise
existing resources effectively for
future scenarios (from originally road
planing to potentially snow blowing
with the aid of the Multihog and snow
blower attachment).
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Andy Johnston, operations manager
at West Lothian Council, already has
two Multihogs with snow blowers in his
arsenal. He said: “The Multihogs’ initial
performance leaves us in no doubt
that we are well equipped for efficient
clearance should the snow return.”
ATED?
NTAM IN
Last year the Met Office reported
temperatures as low as -15.6°C in
Lincolnshire as well as 16cm of snowfall
in North Yorkshire and Herefordshire
underlining the unpredictability of
winter. Because of the increasing
adaptability of resources within West
Yorkshire or West Lothian both can be
confident about any reoccurrence of
severe snow.
TAR CO
IN!
LOCK I T
G
UCIN
RED
GS
AVIN ITU
S
CO2 H IN-S
WIT CYCLING
RE
ON
ISSI
EM
“Director Nick Leadley volunteered
a Multihog to plough and grit a
rural village as it was unsafe for the
local council’s conventional winter
vehicles to access the narrow lanes”
Stabilised Pavements Ltd
PO Box 6909, Lutterworth
Leicestershire, LE17 4WW
T: 01858 880499 F: 01858 881336
E: info@stabilisedpavements.co.uk
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