Stein Connelly, of Transport Scotland, told BBC Radio Scotland's Newsdrive programme that a "managed closure" was put in place on the A720 Ediburgh bypass in a bid to get gritters to the front.

He said: "We've got one lane open there. The weather radar is showing that this might get short break for maybe an hour so we'll continue with the gritters there so hopefully we can get it clear and moving over the next hour and get most people moving and on their way."

He added that HGVs were continuing to experience traction problems on the M80 and the M8.

Mr Connelly said: "We've brought in specialist equipment, we're working with Police Scotland, going the opposite way down the carriageway.

"We're actually connecting on to some of these HGVs and pulling them out. So as soon as we can get these vehicles going, we will.

"It's very, very difficult, it's challenging driving conditions especially on the M8 and the M80 just now. It's blizzard snow conditions and it's dropping temperatures. But we're going to continue with it - we've got all our fleet out there, we'll continue gritting and ploughing right through the night and we'll just need to work as hard as we can."