Due to last night's snowfall, which continued this morning, the winter service of the city's public works department (SRB) is permanently deployed in the city area with snow clearing and gritting vehicles and the available personnel for clearing and gritting work on foot. There are currently 10 snow clearing vehicles, eight of which operate in two shifts, on high-priority routes. Additional small vehicles are deployed in the green areas and municipal cemeteries to clear snow or spread gritting agents as required. Wet salt is applied to the roads. This is a mixture of 70 percent de-icing salt and 30 percent brine.
Priority for snow clearing and de-icing is given to roads that are important for traffic and those on which there is significant traffic. These are, for example, the main roads, routes to workplaces, emergency routes or bus routes.
The professional fire department of the city of Salzgitter has not recorded any accumulation of weather-related deployments of the fire department or rescue service up to and including 12 noon today. Only one car drove into a ditch on a straight stretch of the district road 21 between Gebhardshagen and Lobmachtersen. One person was attended to by the rescue service.
Arne Sicks, head of the professional fire department, emphasizes: "The current weather warning from the German Weather Service remains in force until this evening. The roads in Salzgitter may still be slippery in the coming night despite the winter road clearance service. My request to all road users: Drive slowly and avoid unnecessary journeys. Pedestrians should also be careful on potentially slippery sidewalks."
Residents' obligations with regard to winter road clearance:
SRB operations manager Dietrich Leptien adds on the sidewalks: "To ensure that pedestrians can walk safely, I ask all property owners to comply with the winter maintenance obligation that applies in snowy and icy conditions."
Residents of properties bordering roads must clear sidewalks and dangerous road surfaces and grit them with sand or other de-icing agents. Footpaths must be cleared of snow to a width of at least 1.50 m and gritted in icy conditions. If there is no sidewalk, a 1.50 m wide strip next to or at the edge of the roadway must be kept clear. The winter service is to be carried out on weekdays from 7.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m. and on Sundays and public holidays from 9.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m.