Kilkee winter road plan in place

MONDAY’S meeting of Kilkee Town Council heard that Clare County Council has a winter maintenance programme plan in place to deal with a possible repeat of last winter’s severe weather, which made travel impossible in some parts of West Clare.

Fine Gael’s town councillor Paddy Collins requested information on Clare County Council’s winter management plans concerning the upkeep of local roads.
“At county level, an annual winter maintenance programme is in place to deal with severe weather relating to ice and snow. This programme is overseen by the senior roads engineer and his staff and involves the spreading of salt on the national and some regional roads network to assist the general motoring public. The programme is co-ordinated with the National Roads Authority ICECAST prediction and thermal mapping system to enable accurate prediction of weather patterns,” Cyril Feeney, acting senior executive engineer in the Kilrush electoral area explained.
“Winter maintenance of the road network is primarily dealt with at an area level by the relevant area office. The work covered by the area office includes carrying out necessary pothole repairs, maintenance of water courses, cleaning roadside drainage ditches and opening drainage outlets,” he added.
At the same meeting, Councillor Mary Owens asked Clare County Council to widen the footpath at the side of the Bank of Ireland to ensure that people in wheelchairs can access the ATM.
“Clare County Council will widen this short section of footpath in the coming weeks as part of the 2010 special grant for the provision of new footpaths and repairs to existing footpaths in former town commissioner’s areas,” town engineer Derek Troy replied.