John with highways crew Mark Cartlidge (left) and Trevor Wright

Heavy duty gear helps combat climate change challenge

Most of my working life was spent as a frontline fireman, so I'm pretty used to dealing with hoses.

But I took a turn on a different type of hose in the week when I tested out some of our latest gully emptying equipment.

There has been a £500,000 investment in this gear, and one of the reasons this spending is essential is of new heavy duty gulley-emptying equipment.

The new gear is needed to help combat the changing weather conditions associated with climate change and heavier traffic. I joined a team on the roads of Newcastle to find out about the increased challenges posed by changing weather conditions.

Clearing highway drains is becoming an increasingly complex and difficult task  as weather conditions become more unstable and heavy downpours place more strain on the system. The ever-growing number of vehicles on the roads adds to the problems.

Heavy rain and road usage forces more debris into the gulleys. And if they are not cleared rainfall has nowhere to go and leads to flooded roads.

Staffordshire Highways has already upped the anté by supplementing the programme with flexible targeted action to tackle identified problems. Page Last Modified: 14/12/2007 13:20:46

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