Case Study: Essex Highways achieves safer, more efficient winter road management with DTN (MeteoGroup)

Managing Essex Highways in winter with the support of MeteoGroup

Essex Highways, which manages one of the UK’s largest winter gritting networks (around 2,000 miles, 57 gritting lorries and 15,000 tonnes of salt), faced the challenge of making timely, safety-critical decisions about when and where to treat roads in rapidly changing winter conditions. To support those decisions they rely on DTN’s forecasting services and the RoadMaster platform (including road weather stations and an app) to provide 24/7 forecasts, alerts and real‑time condition reports from drivers and stations across the county.

DTN implemented its RoadMaster solution with tailored forecasts, road‑weather sensors, GPS-enabled gritter tracking and an actions log for sharing and auditing decisions, allowing Essex Highways to move from parallel systems to full reliance on one portal. The result was clearer, faster decision-making and operational coordination — enabling 108 winter treatments this season (double the 10‑year average of 55), more accurate pre-treatment timing, improved reporting and planning, and ongoing work with DTN on route‑based forecasts and trigger optimization to boost efficiency.

Essex Highways

Robbie Jamieson

Service Manager