Council stockpiles salt ahead of winter

Anton McNulty

Mayo County Council is confident it has enough salt to grit the roads this winter after stockpiling 5,000 tonnes.
The Council’s Winter Service Plan for 2006/07, launched last week, revealed that national and secondary roads will be the number one priority for gritting this winter while strategically important regional and local roads will also be considered priority two roads.
Peter McLoughlin of Mayo County Council told last week’s Roads and Transportation SPC meeting that the Council can stockpile a capacity of 6,000 tonnes of salt and currently has 5,000 tonnes stockpiled.
Last winter, which was milder than previous winters, just 4,500 tonnes of salt was used on the road network, compared to 8,300 tonnes the year before.
After investing in store barns across the county, the council believes it is in a better position than ever to deal with a severe winter.

Salt barns
During the harsh winters of 2010 and 2011 there were serious salt shortages. However, since then there has been ‘significant investment’ in salt-storage facilities.
“We now have state-of-the-art salt barns,” explained Paul Dolan, a senior engineer with the council. “We have almost 6,000-tonne storage capacity compared to a fraction of that in 2010/11. In a severe event we would have salt available … I don’t think we will have a situation like we had back when there was a shortage.”
There are 21 treatment routes in the county, with Priority One routes making up 1,075km of road, and the reminder categorised as Priority Two. Where resources allow, footpaths and streets will also be gritted if necessary, according to McLoughlin.
Thanks to the mild weather last year, only 63 gritting operations were needed, at a cost of €620,000, compared to 100 the year before.