Winter Maintenance

The city prepares for winter maintenance all year round.

Maintenance is not just about ploughing and gritting during snowfalls. What else falls under maintenance, and what changes and improvements have we made?

The purpose of winter maintenance

is to mitigate the impacts of adverse weather conditions on the usability of roads in the city. Depending on the weather forecast, surface treatment is performed as a precaution against snow and ice, and roads and pavements are continuously ploughed and gritted during snowfall, thus making them usable as quickly as possible.

Throughout the year, we apply anti-slip and grippy surfacing to critical road sections, installing sensors to provide our dispatchers with up-to-date data on weather and road conditions. We also provide the necessary equipment and personnel, and we have prepared the Winter Operations Plan.

Winter maintenance in Bratislava is ensured by:

A.I.I. Technical Services

• 44 large spreaders with ploughs over 4 tonnes
• 15 pieces of smaller spreaders with plough – Multicars up to 4 tonnes
• 22 vans with drivers up to 3.5 tonnes for the transport of manual workers
• 66 manual workers
• 2 emergency crews consisting of one driver and three manual workers (to deal with the consequences of traffic accidents)

The scope of winter maintenance:

• more than 4.6 million m² of roads (local class I and class II roads and passable road sections)
• more than 156,000 m² of pavements, squares, footbridges, overpasses and staircases

The Bratislava Municipal Enterprise

• 7 Multicars
• 4 Citymasters up to 3.5 tonnes for snow ploughing and gritting
• 5 vans for the transport of workers
• 10 Tielburgers
• 2 Kubota mini tractors for salt loading
• 65 workers (of which ten are temporary workers)
• 1 emergency crew consisting of one driver and one manual worker

Scope of winter maintenance:

• 209,418 m² of pavements in Ružinov, Nové Mesto, Rača and Vajnory

Contracted city districts

• 24 pieces of equipment with ploughs
• 34 manual workers

Scope of winter maintenance:

• 99,814 m² of pavements in eight city districts (Záhorská Bystrica, Lamač, Devínska Nová Ves, Vrakuňa, Podunajské Biskupice, Petržalka, Jarovce and Rusovce)

Winter Maintenance Map

This map shows all the roads managed by the city where it carries out winter maintenance. Other roads are usually maintained by city districts or other organisations. You can use the layers to view or change the information shown on the map. The layers button can be found in the top right corner.

A map of gritters

Will be renewed in the winter season

Municipal Organisation of Bratislava vehicle location tracking

You can track the vehicles at this link. ↗︎

A hotline for more effective winter maintenance

You can call the hotline and send us your suggestions for ploughing impassable roads. Thanks to the hotline, hundreds of these suggestions were resolved last year. Thank you!

Our operators send them to the city dispatching office or to the dispatching office of the city districts, depending on the road administrator in the area. The hotline operates whenever weather conditions are particularly bad (e.g. snow and ice) between 07:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. during winter.

The hotline workers will also be happy to provide you with further information on the current state of maintenance, the operational plan and anything else related to winter maintenance. When the winter maintenance line is not operating, you can send your suggestions to [email protected].

Improvements and changes

• more equipment and staff for pavement maintenance.
• Involvement of the Bratislava Municipal Enterprise in winter maintenance in Ružinov, Nové Mesto, Rača and Vajnory.
• Cooperation with the residents of the city, who report their suggestions for clearing impassable roads to the winter maintenance hotline.
• Buses have high-quality winter tyres, including those with a winter classification, the "Alpine symbol" and a minimum tread depth of 5 mm.
• We are also testing a special Tyregrip anti-slip surface at several public transport stops uphill, which increases vehicle stability and shortens braking distance owing to increased roughness.
• We have applied materials that help public transport vehicles move uphill on hilly sections.
• Continuous clearing of critical hilly sections for example, Kramáre, Pražská, Dlhé díly, and Koliba. In addition to the gritters designated for individual districts, there is a standby gritter as well
• A modified road surface on Molecova Street The asphalt was replaced with an asphalt mix with higher stiffness and resistance to rutting. The mix has better grip when going uphill and reduces braking distance. It also has better drainage of rainwater from the road surface and reduces noise when driving on the road.

Winter maintenance allows us to mitigate the impacts of winter but not eliminate them completely. We ask for your patience and thank you for your valuable input, which helps us to cope better every winter.

A few recommendations for the winter season

When walking, choose appropriate footwear and exercise caution. If you can, please clear the pavement in front of your house. You will help our city make pavements usable much faster. In fact, contractors have up to twenty-four hours after the snowfall is over to treat the surface on most pavements. All you have to do is clear a 1-metre corridor.

Report persistent problems to the Winter Maintenance Hotline to help us respond more promptly. Please do not block the pavement when parking.

During bad weather conditions, pay extra attention to driving. If you don't need to drive, switch to using public transport instead.

Help your city district by clearing municipal pavements. This is most effective if you help in the district where you live. Several city districts will be prepared to coordinate this kind of assistance. Below you will find the contact details for most city districts.

Become a member of the Rapid Response Volunteer Squad. During particularly heavy snowfall, or in the event of a calamity, the city also welcomes help with the maintenance of critical sections – especially high-traffic and hilly ones. We have set up a Volunteer Rapid Response Squad to quickly respond to critical situations in coordination with the city's Dispatch Centre. If you want to help our city and learn more about winter maintenance, contact [email protected]. The amount of time you can devote to the city is up to you. We will contact you before any expected snowfall to confirm your availability.

City district contact details for volunteers

Staré Mesto – [email protected] Lamač – [email protected] Ružinov – [email protected] Devín – [email protected] Vrakuňa – [email protected] Devínska Nová Ves – [email protected] Záhorská Bystrica – [email protected] Nové Mesto – [email protected] Rača – [email protected] Jarovce – [email protected] Vajnory – [email protected] Karlova Ves – [email protected] Čunovo - [email protected] Dúbravka – [email protected] Rusovce - [email protected] Podunajské Biskupice - [email protected]