Report from County Manager in Dún Laoghaire on gritting
Issued : Thursday 7 January, 2010
County Manager’s Office
County Hall
To An Cathaoirleach and
Members of the Council
7 January 2010
Up Date on Road Gritting Operations
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council is responsible for maintaining all public roads and footpaths in this county. The Council has sought to discharge its responsibility by regularly treating 250km of roads out of a total public road network in the county of 700km approx. The roads treated include all national and regional roads and the main local roads in the county including all bus routes. (A map showing the treated routes is attached). The objective has been to ensure that our primary roads, bus routes and other heavily trafficked routes are clear so that vehicles can travel safely. Budgetary and staffing constraints have not restricted the Council’s road gritting operations.
The Vaisalla web based system, which records road temperature, weather and gives a forecast each day is monitored and used to decide whether to grit or not. Since the current cold spell began, the Council’s 11 gritting vehicles have operated from 17 December to 25 December inclusive, on 27 December and from 31 December to 7 January (today) inclusive. On most days areas were gritted several times in particular Dundrum, stretches of the N11 and the upland areas of the County. We also fitted the snow ploughs as required which were useful in clearing fresh snow in upland areas (e.g. Glencullen). However, these are ineffective when the snow is packed and particularly when frozen.
In addition to the 11 gritting crews, the operation has involved the Roads Maintenance Inspectors and Engineers as well as mechanics from the Mechanical Section. I would like to acknowledge the dedication and commitment of all the staff involved.
The Housing Maintenance Section has also gritted the paths and balconies in all Senior Citizen complexes yesterday and today.
I think the Council can validly claim that we have maintained a reasonable level of service on the main road network throughout the period, although I accept that there are problems on some local/estate roads and the condition of footpaths is also a matter of concern. (We have only been able to respond to a small number of requests to treat estate roads and footpaths have not been treated). There were particular problems on New Year’s day due in the main to the fact that traffic was extremely light and there was no HGV traffic to break up the snow/ice to form a slush and work the salt in.
In preparation for the winter season, the Council’s Salt Barn at Burton Hall, Sandyford was full of salt before Christmas. We also placed an order for salt before Christmas and we have received some deliveries over the last few days. The extreme temperatures that we are experiencing are demanding larger quantities of salt on each callout. The situation has been compounded further by the duration of the current cold spell. At no stage has the Council been without salt. However, on the weekend of 2/3 January 2010 it was used prudently due to the lack of confirmed supplies. The salt supply situation is now critical and we are using a mix of salt and sand (1:4) instead of the preferred 100% salt. We have made representations today to the Department of Transport to see if the salt supply situation can be improved.
The Council has worked very closely with the NRA, An Garda Siochana and Dublin Bus and responded to requests from these organisations for treatment of particular areas. The Council was not consulted about the decision to abandon the Bus Atha Cliath services on the afternoon of 6 January 2010.
Owen P Keegan
Cllr 
