Cork County Council ‘ready’ for cold snap

Road users in Co Cork should take some comfort from the fact that the local authority "has never been better prepared" to deal with any threat of snow and ice.

Tom Stritch, the council’s director of roads, said that the council had 7,180 tonnes of salt in stock with major storage barns at Mallow, Ballincollig, Skibbereen and Glanmire which were full to capacity. He said it was the largest amount of salt the council had ever stored.

The council also has 27 salt spreaders and crews on standby in preparation for a cold snap. Mr Stritch said that area engineers in all divisions were constantly checking weather forecasts and systems which monitor potential ice build-up on all national roads and most regional roads in the county. “Based on this monitoring, decisions are then made when to salt the roads,” Mr Stritch said. He said salt was also being stored in smaller council depots countywide.

The council will have more resources at its disposal if the weather deteriorates like it did a couple of years ago. At that stage, the council was also responsible for salting motorways but the National Roads Authority has since taken on the responsibility to ensure main routes are passable. Mr Stritch said the council had already prioritised its network of roads.

Main roads will get priority, followed by most regional roads and bottom of the list will be rural roads. “Some rural roads will be salted in the vicinity of the city and big towns where the population has to get to work. “We will also prioritise routes to serve strategic industries in places like Little Island, Carrigtwohill and Ringaskiddy,” the senior official said.

Mr Stritch added that the council would also ensure that minor roads on the periphery of the city are kept open for orbital bus routes. Residents’ associations can also apply to the council to get large salt bins which will be refilled by the council. Residents’ associations will have to pay for the bins and salt fills.

The council has also entered into an agreement with farm organisation IFA. It will ensure that farmers get salt supplies which they will use in particular to keep rural roads open to traffic.

Further information on the council’s plans for severe weather, as well as detailed maps of which roads will get which type of priority status for salting, can be found here.