Clare County Council says it has “ample” supplies of rock salt to treat the County’s roads during the coming winter.
In excess of 1,o00 tonnes of rock salt are currently in storage at the local authority’s depot and maintenance facility at Beechpark including stocks held over from last winter, which was one of the mildest in recent years.
Salt stocks will also be drawn down by the council during the winter from the National Roads Authority (NRA) and the Department of Transport (DTTAS), which has allocated 2,200 additional tonnes to Clare. Further stocks will be available if required in an emergency situation from the NRA’s strategic salt reserve.
Clare County Council’s fleet of salt spreader trucks will facilitate road treatment operations during the winter season.
Salt stocks will be used to treat strategic national, excluding the motorway network, and non-national routes around Clare during the winter season. Clare’s motorway and dual carriageways will be treated directly by contractors on behalf of the NRA, which assumed responsibility for the National Motorway Network in 2013.
The ‘Winter Maintenance Salting routes 2014-15’ are available to view on the council website at www.clarecoco.ie
Meanwhile, Clare County Council is urging members of the public to view ‘Be Winter-Ready’ advice and information guide, which is aimed at raising awareness of the importance of preparing for severe weather.
The guide is available on the council website and is part of a Government initiative launched in 2011. The guide features flooding advice, tips on how to reduce the risk of water leakages and shortages during freezing weather, advice on clearing snow, safety tips for driving in snow and ice, and information for the farming community, as well as a range of other public health and safety advice.
The last three winters have been mild with above average temperatures recorded throughout Clare for much of the time.However, the winters of 2009-10 and 2010-11 brought record low temperatures significant disruption to traffic and travel as well as water supplies in Clare.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.