Council have two days of salt left

Council has two days of salt supply left


Rowan Gallagher

MAYO County Council only have two days supply of salt left and if it snows again there will not be enough salt to treat any roads in the county.
As of today (Tuesday) Mayo County Council only have 200 tonnes of salt supply left - after a deluge of snow over the weekend forced the local authority to increase its salt use.
Salt gritters in Mayo do two runs a day on national primary roads and use 50 tonnes per run. However, at the weekend a heavy snowfall forced the hand of the Council to use 100 tonnes per run leaving the reserve supply dangerously low.
“It will be very tight and if we do get through it... it will be by the skin of our teeth. It is a national situation at this stage. We are hoping to get some supply in by Thursday but if that doesn’t come we will certainly be scraping the bottom of the barrel.
“We have had to stop salting every national secondary road and any road that isn’t a national primary is only getting grit now.  We are doing what we can in these types of conditions and it is better than doing nothing. At least the roads are open and traffic can get through,” Mayo County Engineer, Joe Beirne told The Mayo News.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) the local authority will literally be scraping the bottom of the barrel as the last load of salt is distributed on the primary roads across the county.
The National Roads Authority has promised Mayo County Council additional stocks of salt by Thursday but if this doesn’t materialise then treatment of roads over Christmas will not be possible.
Mayo County Council have confirmed that the N5 road from Swinford to Castlebar has been getting a reduced treatment of salt as the local authority desperately tries to conserve the last of the salt supply.
The National Roads Authority has confirmed that the first shipment of salt will be arriving in Cork Harbour on Wednesday night or Thursday morning.
“The most up-to-date position is that the shipment of salt should be here by mid week and we will have 130 trucks waiting at Cork Harbour to bring the salt to local authorities. Nationally we have about 8,000 tonnes left at the moment and the shipment is coinciding with a warming also. “After this first shipment we have already put in orders for  additional shipments to top up the supply. All of Europe is finding it difficult at the moment but we will be able to cope in the coming weeks,” Sean O’Neill of the NRA told The Mayo News.
Swinford County Councillor Joe Mellett said that although the situation was bad the Council was much better prepared now.
Met Éireann has warned that there will be no thaw before Christmas with sub zero temperatures remaining at least until Christmas Eve at the earliest.
Temperatures in Mayo fell to below minus 17 degrees in Foxford yesterday (Monday) while the lowest recorded temperature was recorded in Tyrone where the mercury dropped to minus 18.
Diesel in Roadstone trucks, the company who provide the grit to Mayo County Council, froze over night with the sub zero temperatures. There is no snow fall predicted for Mayo in the next few days but temperatures are not expected to rise above freezing until after Christmas.
Mayo County Council are maintaining supplies of grit in rural and urban areas for people to spread as they see fit as the council do not have the resources to treat any roads other than the national primaries.