Gritting crews on standby to lay sand on melting roads

Council officials said high temperatures could melt road surfaces making them "tacky and dangerous".

Gritting crews have been put on standby to deal with melting roads by spreading sand on them.

Forecasters have warned parts of Lincolnshire could see record-breaking heat on Monday and Tuesday.

Officials said the predicted high temperatures could melt road surfaces making them "tacky and dangerous".

Lincolnshire county councillor Richard Davies said such measures had never been used before.

Mr Davies said surface temperatures of 45C (113F) or 50C (122F) were a concern because "tarmac bitumen can start to bubble and melt and become dangerous and tacky."

"So we load each truck up with about two and a half tonnes of sand and spread layers which fall into the bitumen, helps it stay hard and stops the road surface spreading all over the place," he added.

Trucks were being loaded with sand ready to spread on "bubbling" roads officials said

It's not the first time soaring temperatures have melted roads.

In 2006, gritting lorries had to be sent out to spread crushed rock dust on melting tar to create non-stick road surfaces after roads melted in parts of England.

Dr Howard Robinson, chief executive of the Road Surface Treatments Association, said most roads in the UK which experience "a reasonable amount of traffic" would start softening at 50C.

Lincolnshire's highest ever recorded temperature of 36.3C (97.3F) was set at RAF Cranwell on 25 July 2019.