Laois County Council issues update on salting routes as temperatures to plummet

Laois County Council has issued information on its salting and gritting priorities as temperatures are set to plummet over the coming week. 

On Saturday the local authority updated its advice to the public warning that significant snowfall accumulations are expected. Next week temperatures could drop as low as -10. 

The Council issued the following information: 

"Having regard to the council’s resources in terms of finance, equipment and staffing levels and to maximise benefit to road users, winter maintenance of roads in Laois is prioritised on the following basis: -

· Priority 1: M7 motorway, national roads, and regional roads of strategic importance, for example expressway bus routes, access to the train and bus depots, hospitals, ambulance routes, and fire stations.

· Priority 2: Regional roads with high volume of traffic using the road and access to major schools and industries.

· Priority 3: Other regional roads, town streets and local county roads on a priority basis.

In extreme weather events priority 1 routes will take precedence over priority 2 routes in terms of allocation of available resources.

The council has a total capacity of approximately 750 tonnes in its salt storage facilities, which is sufficient to treat a 5-day snow event.

Eight crews are rostered to pre-salt priority 1 and priority 2 routes (approximately 478 km) before the onset of icy conditions. These spreaders can have snowblades fitted in the event of snow. It is common for a variance in road temperatures to occur across the county, which may result in only some of the routes being pre-treated on any night.

In the event of dangerous road conditions, that is, black ice, white frost, snow, flooding, muck or any other hazardous road condition. The responsibility is on the driver to drive at an appropriate speed with due care in accordance with prevailing conditions on the road.

"Laois County Council is not responsible for any accidents that may occur as a result of poor driving conditions."

The Council also provided a map for the salting and gritting routes through the following link: www.laois.ie/roads-and-transport/road-maintenance/roads-winter-maintenance