This article is from page 15 of the 2013-11-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 15 JPG
CLARE County Council has access to more than 3,000 tonnes of rock salt to treat the county’s roads this winter.
The big freeze during the winter of 2010-2011 saw the local authority under pressure as it gritted the county’s main thoroughfares.
This year preparations are in place early with one third of the available salt stock currently in storage.
The 1,000 tonnes of salt in storage has been held over from last winter, which was one of the mildest in recent years.
The additional 2,000 tonnes of salt is available to the council to draw down when required from the National Roads Authority (NRA) and the Department of Transport (DTTAS).
Council staff have already participated in their first road treatment operation of the winter. The surface temperature dropped low enough last weekend for a number of trucks to be dispatched from the local authority’s depot/maintenance facility at Beechpark, near Ennis.
According to senior engineer Tom Tiernan;
“These stocks will be used to treat strategic national (excluding the mo- torway network) and non-national routes around the county during the coming weeks and months.
“For the first time the county’s motorway and dual carriageways will be treated directly by the NRA, which assumed responsibility for the national motorway network earlier this year.”