Seen on the M24 coming in towards Heathrow was one of those informational signs informing the masses that “Gritting in Progress” was occurring ahead. It was dark and I was preoccupied with not missing my exit so I saw no clues as to what Gritting was, let alone any signs as to how it was Progressing.
My WAG is that they were scuffing up the road in preparation of putting down a new top coat. They were probably warning you that there’s going to be alot of gravel on the road. That and there would be road crews out and about.
A page I just found on yahoo by searching “Gritting in progress” says that it’s to let you know they are salting the road to remove ice. Does that sound right?
It wasn’t so cold last night that I would have thought that salting was neccessary and looking out the hotel window right now I see that it didn’t even frost last night (it’s 6:30 GMT now). And the sign was programmable so I would have thought that it would be giving up to date information, not yesterday mornings when it did frost.
The Brits should be checking in here soon, so I’m sure they’ll be able to give us a definitive answer to this queer phrase.
Yes, it means that the roads are being gritted (salted) because of frost risk. I don’t know about the Heathrow area, but here in the East Midlands we woke up to a white frost on the ground.
It’s called gritting because they use rock salt like they’re selling here which looks like pink grit rather than table salt. Salt to melt the ice, grit for grip. We’ve had a lot of frosty, and some snowy nights recently.
They grit is sprayed out from a sort of upside down lawn sprinkler thingy on the back of a truck. The signs would be warning you to look out for the truck(s) since they don’t drive at full out motorway speed.
It could be the overhead sign was up the creek - it wouldn’t be the first time - but it is more likely they were gritting as a precaution based on the weather forecast. As **Rayne Man ** says it was icy across a lot of southern England the last couple of nights - even if Heathrow escaped.
[minor nitpick] Either the M4 or the M25 - I don’t think the M24 exists! [/minor nitpick]
It snowed here too, which means quite a large area was affected (I’m in Rutland).
This is a sign they display when the motorway is in gridlock.
It refers to motorists’ teeth.
Yah, there is no M24.
Slight tangent: here’s an interesting link - Tube-style map of motorways
That map is a bit strange because it has missed out large chunks of the A1. I suppose this is because this particular road is a bit of a mongrel, part motorway and part “A” road.
I think that’s right - the A1 is only a motorway on the parts where it is designated A1(M). On the other parts learners, motorcycles under 50cc and so on are permitted.