Cyclical cleaning
To help prevent highway floods, we carry out regular cleansing of the gullies, and where necessary we clear the connecting pipework.
We clean all roadside drainage gullies at least once every three years.
Rather than clear all gullies the same number of times each year, we have optimised our gully emptying frequencies. This means that we empty those gullies that often become blocked more frequently than those that don't.
Sometimes there are parked cars blocking the roadside drains when we try to clear them. If the drain looks visibly blocked when this happens we will come back at a later date to re-attempt to clean the drain.
Sometimes we are unable to remove the lid of the roadside drain as it has become jammed. In these cases we may have to return at a later date to fix the lid before we can clean the drain. To reduce the risk of this occurring, we have a programme to unjam gully grids ahead of our cyclical cleansing teams.
Our drains are cleared on a cyclical basis, with silt sucked up from the gulley pot into our gully emptying vehicles for later disposal. Rather than clear all gullies the same number of times each year, we have optimised our gully emptying frequencies, more regularly emptying those gullies that often become blocked, and reducing frequencies at locations that do not tend to have any issues.