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.