Winter service; clearing and gritting in snow and icy conditions

Winter maintenance is not part of the road maintenance authority’s responsibilities. There is no obligation under road traffic law to provide general winter maintenance on roads or on specific categories of roads. The duty to ensure public safety, which has its roots in civil law, may, in individual cases – particularly on roads passing through built-up areas – give rise to winter maintenance obligations for the road authority; however, these are subject to significant geographical or practical restrictions depending on the local situation. On open stretches of road, there is an obligation to grit in the event of snow and ice only at particularly hazardous road sections (points on the carriageway). Apart from this, winter maintenance is a voluntary service provided by the road authority. Winter

maintenance outside built-up areas

The federal motorway company, Autobahn GmbH, has set up a voluntary 24-hour winter maintenance service on federal motorways in order to ensure that the roads remain passable wherever possible. However, road users have no legal right to such passability.

On other roads under state administration (federal, state and administered district roads), voluntary winter maintenance outside built-up areas is carried out only during the day; depending on the road’s importance for inter-local traffic, commuter traffic or scheduled bus services, it is kept passable from 6.00 am until 8.00 pm or 10.00 pm respectively. During the night, unrestricted passability is not guaranteed.

As a general rule, during heavy, prolonged snowfall, drivers must expect to encounter snow-covered roads at times. Even on motorways, driving conditions will then be severely restricted. Critical road conditions are also to be expected in the event of heavy snow drifts and freezing rain.

Public winter maintenance and private precautions must therefore complement one another. In winter, private precautions include, in particular,

• ensuring that vehicles are fitted with winter tyres in good time (Section 2 of the Road Traffic Regulations)
  and
• driving behaviour adapted to winter road conditions.

Winter maintenance within the built-up area

Under the Bavarian Roads and Paths Act, it is the responsibility of the local authority, in order to maintain public safety and order within built-up areas, to clear snow from public roads in accordance with its capacity and to grit all dangerous sections of the carriageway, pedestrian crossings and footpaths when the surface is slippery, provided this is urgently necessary and no other party is obliged to do so under other legal provisions (in particular the duty to ensure road safety).

Local authorities also have the option of issuing a statutory order requiring residents and those living at the rear of properties to clear and grit the pavements and shared footpaths and cycle paths on public roads adjoining their property or providing access to it; or, where there is no pavement or shared footpath and cycle path, to maintain these public roads in a safe condition to the width required for pedestrian traffic.