‘Gritters in action at zero degrees’
Westmeath County Council’s plan of action for dealing with winter frosts and snow were set out for members of the council at their October meeting.
Council engineer Damien Grennan said the intention was to keep all major routes safe and as safe as possible from hazardous road conditions.
As a result, there are now 566km of roads on the gritting schedule, up 27% on 2012-2013, when 444km were treated whenever there was a bad weather event.
Mr Grennan said the council had invested significantly in winter services operation since August 2021 and the changeover to the use of pre-wet brine instead of dry salt has resulted in some cost savings for the council. On one route which has a total length of 69km, the saving amounted to 1.7 tonnes per night of dry salt.
Mr Grennan added that as part of the investment, the council has begun installation of an additional brine storage facility at its depot in Blyry in Athlone.
The gritting ‘season’ this year began on October 14 and runs to April 13.
“We have four duty engineers on roster for this year. And we have seven drivers available to us, drivers that are dedicated to this operation and are available to us night and day,” Mr Grennan said, adding that it also has relief drivers on standby.
“In terms of our fleet, we have five trucks available at the moment with demountable salt spreaders. Four of them are compatible with pre-wet. The fifth will hopefully be compatible over the coming months.
“Two of the trucks are permanently mounted salt spreaders. They’re parked up in the yard for the remaining four or five months of the year. We have 12 snow ploughs, two loading shovels available to us as well.”
Mr Grennan said that last year was relatively mild, and the roads were treated 39 nights in total, although on 13 of those nights, the roads had to be treated twice. The previous winter the gritters were out 59 times.
Strategic footpaths, again, in both main towns are gritted and if capacity allows, the teams try to get into the smaller towns and villages – “but again, that’s determined by the duration of the event”, Mr Grennan said.
He also informed members that the council also has a flood emergency response plan in place and an annual inter-agency meeting is held in Athlone around this time every year to prepare and plan for potential flood events over the coming months. He added that as part of that, the levels of the River Shannon are continually monitored.
Cllr Tom Farrell complimented the council on the work done, but asked that in gritting they consider giving priority to roads that are used as bus routes. Cllr Frankie Keena at what temperature the teams are called out, and he supported the call to have bus route roads prioritised, but hoped also that more secondary roads could be added to the gritting list.
Cllr David Jones urged inclusion of the Killucan to Delvin road, which he said is heavily used, including by school buses. Cllr Niall Gaffney supported that call.
Cllr Paul Hogan also pressed for the prioritisation of routes that serve buses, particularly the Local Link service, especially given that national policy is to encourage more people to use public transport.
Cllr Ken Glynn said there are a number of housing estates which need to have their entrances gritted, particularly Hillside Drive, Farran, College Hill, Oakcrest and Newtown Lawns: “I think when there’s extreme weather, there should be a little bit of leverage,” he said.
Backing the call for priority to be given to roads buses travel on, Cllr Vinnie McCormack also asked that council look at including the Ballymore to Moate Road on its schedule as it has particular challenges, especially in icy conditions.
The importance of bus routes was also stressed by Cllr Johnnie Penrose, who also pleaded to have the L1902 road from Skeagh Cross to Rathowen gritted.
A query raised by Cllr Julie McCourt related to the gritting of cycle lanes, particularly where they are on footpaths.
The cathaoirleach, Cllr Liam McDaniel, asked that attention be given also to the road between Castletown Geoghegan and Dysart as it is used by the Local Link bus.
Responding, Mr Grennan said that there are portions of the road along which the local link bus travels that are not currently gritted and it would be his view that these should be prioritised, although he saw merit in the other roads raised by councillors.
He also said if there were to be a prolonged weather event and there were concerns at schools, the schools should contact the council and make their case.
In response to the query from Cllr Keena on what temperatures trigger a response, Mr Grennan said that when the forecast is that the temperatures are to fall below zero, the council monitors the situation with a view to having gritters deployed before the temperature hits zero degrees.
On the question of cycleways, he said, within capacity be able to do what they can on shared spaces including cycle tracks such as the Old Rail Trail, although in general that is not something that would be considered a prioritised route.
He added that in bad weather, it was important that the local bus service existed, especially as an alternative for cyclists, for whom cycling when there’s a risk of ice on the roads isn’t tenable.
“We’ll do our best when there’s a prolonged event, as Cllr Glynn outlined, to deal with those hazardous spots within the towns, the steep driveways going into certain estates and so on, but it’s always down to the driver to drive within the conditions that pertain and you’ve got to make a judgement call, you’ve got to ensure that your speed is appropriate,” he said.
“There’s no guarantee that any road will be free of ice, whether it’s on the priority list or not. We do our best to maintain the network in a serviceable order through inclement weather, but as I say, there’s no guarantee.”
https://www.westmeathcoco.ie/en/ourservices/roadsparkingandtransport/wintergritting/