Press releases

• Winter road clearance has been mandatory since November 1. The employees of Aachen's municipal services are now on standby.
• Roads, paths and squares are cleared of snow and ice by the mechanical winter service according to the degree of urgency.
• Property owners are responsible for clearing snow and ice from in front of their property.

At the beginning of November, winter road clearance is also compulsory. For weeks, the vehicles on the premises of Aachener Stadtbetrieb have been prepared for this. Clearance blades and superstructures for gritting materials have been installed, and around 1,600 tons of salt and 100 tons of granulate have been stored. The winter service professionals at the municipal services are well equipped.

Safe roads, paths and squares in winter are an important task. On the basis of legal regulations, environmental protection and economic efficiency take priority in addition to the duty to ensure road safety. 310 employees of the municipal services are deployed in the winter road clearance service and move out immediately when snow and slippery conditions arise.

Mechanical winter service

When most people are still asleep, the drivers of the winter service clear and grit the roads with a total of 90 vehicles, including large gritting vehicles, small gritting vehicles and tractors, and ensure safe conditions on around 1,200 roads with a length of around 1,500 kilometers throughout the city. As it is not possible to maintain all roads at the same time in snowy and icy conditions, the mechanized winter service works according to an emergency plan.

From 3 a.m., snow and ice are cleared from roads with special traffic significance. These include main roads and through roads, roads for local public transport and access roads to hospitals. By the time this priority level 1 is completed at around 7 a.m., the winter service drivers have already covered a distance of 555 kilometers. This is followed by around 457 kilometers of emergency level 2. These are mainly connecting and residential roads.

Urgency level 3 includes purely residential and residential roads. Winter road maintenance on these roads is carried out after level 2 and covers a gritting distance of 423 kilometers.

Manual winter service

In parallel to the mechanical winter service, the employees of the manual winter service, for example, usually ensure road safety at 223 intersections, 27 pedestrian zones, 183 crosswalks, 410 footpaths, 18 bridges and 64 stairways from 3 a.m. onwards.

Winter service on cycle paths

The municipal company is also responsible for winter road maintenance on cycle paths. This applies to a route length of 90 kilometers in the city area in priority level 1, plus a further 25 kilometers in priority level 2.

Property owners

The respective property owners are responsible for removing snow and ice from footpaths. Only blunting agents such as sand or grit may be used as gritting agents. Exceptions to this rule are only permitted if the use of blunting gritting agents is not sufficient, is not effective and therefore poses a risk to the health of pedestrians, for example in icy conditions, on stairs and on steep slopes. The sidewalks must be kept clear of snow to a width of one and a half meters as required for pedestrians and gritted in icy conditions.

The obligation to maintain sidewalks in winter also extends to public transport stops and school bus stops as well as all crosswalks. This includes traffic lights, crosswalks and dropped kerbs. At these points, the sidewalks must be cleared of snow up to the kerb and gritted in icy conditions to ensure that access and egress is as safe as possible.

On working days, snow that has fallen between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. and slippery conditions must be removed immediately after the snow has stopped falling and the slippery conditions have arisen. Snow that has fallen after 8 p.m. and ice that has formed must be removed by 7 a.m. (on Sundays and public holidays by 9 a.m.) the following day.

Special care in road traffic

Even with the best organization, the winter season always brings disruptions to vehicle and pedestrian traffic. All road users should exercise appropriate caution in snow and ice. Driving at a speed appropriate to the road conditions reduces the risk of accidents. Depending on the weather conditions, it may be better to leave your vehicle parked. Cars should be parked in such a way that the wide winter service vehicles can easily get through the streets.