Councils stockpile salt in preparation for ‘hard winter’

Local authorities said yesterday they have already stockpiled thousands of tonnes of rock salt in preparation for a “hard winter”.

Cork County Council has an estimated 4,000 tonnes stored at a number of salt barns.

The country’s largest local authority is also planning to create regional storage centres in Skibbereen, Ballincollig, and Little Island.

And, Clare County Council said yesterday it has stockpiled over 3,000 tonnes of rock salt.

The salt has been acquired from the National Roads Authority and the Department of Transport and will be available to treat main roads during the coming winter.

Following a much milder winter in 2011/2012, more than half the stock had been left.

However, in 2010/2011, many local authorities across the country were left with minimal salt stocks and had to use grit or a mixture of both when the country was hit by a harsher than expected cold snap.

In Clare, council staff have already been out treating the roads network with the first road treatment operation of the winter taking place on Wednesday night.

Surface temperatures dropped low enough for a number of trucks to be dispatched from the local authority’s depot at Beechpark near Ennis.

Clare council engineer Tom Tiernan said: “Presently, more than 3,000 tonnes of salt has been stored at Beechpark after storage capacity at the facility was upgraded from 1,200 to 3,000 tonnes earlier this year.”

However, Mr Tiernan said: “We have received no indication from Met Éireann that the country is going to experience a prolonged period of cold weather in the near future.

“However, since Met Éireann does not provide long range forecasts and there is a low confidence factor associated with such forecasts, it is extremely difficult to tell if a sustained period of severe weather is likely to occur later in the year or in early 2013.

“Either way, the council is well prepared.”