Louth County Council - Preparing for winter
As temperatures begin to fall and winter starts to make its presence known, Louth County Council is continuing its winter preparations. The Council invests over €350,000 in its essential Winter Maintenance Programme which operates across national primary and secondary roads, regional roads and town centre routes across the county.
There are more than 1,500kms of roadway in Louth and four principal routes carry nearly 70% of all road traffic. Given the extent of the county road network it is impossible to treat every road and pedestrian area. However, the Council works hard to ensure that the network is kept open for traffic and each run of the combined strategic routes involves Council gritting lorries treating 408km of roadway. The Council uses social media to ensure that motorists are informed of gritting times and routes, providing maps on its website and posting gritting times on Twitter.
Louth County Council operates a modern fleet of four demountable snowploughs and salt spreaders to deliver its winter gritting service. In addition to this, three older reserve trucks are kept operational to back- Louth County Council gritting lorries prepared for winter
up the modern fleet. The winter maintenance schedule continues to provide improved efficiencies for the Council. New vehicles added to the fleet in 2015 & 2016 adequately
meet the delivery requirements of this vital service and have proven to be a key investment decision.
A wide range of County Council vehicles, equipment and machinery are checked and serviced well ahead of the winter months. This ensures readiness for scheduled road maintenance and severe weather events. Annual staff training on plant and machinery for clearing snow and ice takes place in October and contributes to an efficient response should the need arise. The Council’s salt barns are strategically located close to major routes, with capacity for up to 850 tonnes each. Stocks are checked well in advance, and working with Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), can be replenished at short notice.
Between October 2017 and April 2018, Louth County Council completed 133 gritting runs treating more than 54,000km of roads with 5,558 tonnes of rock salt mixed with brine. It is important to treat roads at the optimum times in advance of freezing temperatures and council staff study best practices in other European countries and Canada where extreme weather is more common. The Council achieve this by monitoring air and pavement temperatures from the Transport Infrastructure Ireland ice prediction system, which includes three weather stations in Louth. Where necessary, roads are often treated twice in one night.
Commenting, Willie Walsh, Director of Operations with Louth County Council said “The local knowledge of our engineers and outdoor staff is invaluable. Knowing their jurisdictions intimately, including local pinch points for flooding and ice blackspots enables our staff to act quickly when the weather turns. Work that may go unnoticed, such as making a call to drop flood barriers and sandbags if winds pick up unexpectedly or ahead of spring tides, or depositing grit at hazardous junctions in upland areas when temperatures drop, can make a significant difference in managing the effects of bad weather”.
Despite all of the Councils preparations it is not possible to guarantee that roads will be entirely clear of ice at all times, therefore, all road users must be alert to any variations in the road surface condition.
During periods of severe weather, it is important to obtain the latest information. Louth County Council re-tweet Met Éireann weather forecasts and weather warnings. Stay up to date with council notices by visiting www.louthcoco.ie and follow on Twitter @louthcoco.