Kildare County Council can't salt or grit any more roads

Kildare County Council says it can’t commit to gritting roads in residential areas during freezing weather conditions - because of limits on resources.

The request came from Cllr Rupert Heather at a Celbridge-Leixlip Municipal District meeting.

He said that roads in estates with higher traffic volumes should be included.

Kildare County Council engineer David Reel said KCC aims to keep all principal roads in the county open to traffic, free from ice and safe to travel on.

He said KCC deals with national secondary, regional and local roads while national primary and motorway routes are dealt with by contractors on behalf Transport Infrastructure Ireland.

The KCC winter maintenance plan and map of routes are prepared annually and updated on the council’s website.

KCC currently works on 10 routes, treating approximately 705 kms or roads.

Mr Reel said this equates to the treatment of approximately 26.5 % of Kildare’s road infrastructure. 

In all, including TII’s work, some  30.3 % of all roads within County Kildare are treated, said Mr Reel adding, “this is higher than our neighbouring counties, who treat between 24-26 % of their road network.”

He said the plan “requires a significant input of resources, including 24 drivers, vehicles, equipment, technical and administrative staff and operates at a considerable cost.”

He also said KCC’s salting trucks on all routes are running at capacity at present, which means KCC can’t add new roads to the programme without removing the service from another area.

He noted that during severe weather conditions KCC staff may give priority to other roads and junctions “outside of our standard routes that need treatment.” and “this may include snow clearing and salting on additional roads at critical locations.”