South Dublin County Council’s ongoing response to current prolonged adverse weather conditions.

04/01/2010

Archived item. This item is published here for historical reasons. The information below may be out of date.

STATEMENT

South Dublin County Council’s ongoing response to current prolonged adverse weather conditions.

Since mid December 2009, the Council has on average carried out - twice daily, morning and evening - gritting runs on the 343 km of roads that are included in our gritting routes. This constitutes approx. 40% of the total roads in South Dublin County Council’s area.

The number of man hours devoted to the gritting of the County’s roads since the start of the recent prolonged spell of inclement weather is in excess of 3600 hours.

As is normal, the Council had stock piled approx 750 tonnes of grit (red rock salt) which is normally sufficient to provide for 25 gritting days under normal predicted conditions/average winter weather conditions. Due to the prolonged period of cold weather, the Council had to source additional supplies of gritting materials. While deliveries continued all through the festive holiday period , nonetheless, the Council’s stock of grit has been reduced to a level whereby we have had to scale back our gritting routes to only include National Primary, National Secondary and a number of the larger Regional Roads within the County, with particular emphasis on the main commuting routes.

The current level of activity is stretching the Council’s resources and is dependent on the continued availability and delivery of gritting supplies.

The Council continues to work in partnership with all parties including its suppliers to sustain its current level of response. At present supplies are being sourced from three different suppliers in Carrickfergus, Cork and Limerick and a delivery schedule is in place to replenish gritting supplies.

It is important to acknowledge the contribution and sacrifices made by the Council’s gritting crews who have worked tirelessly over the entire Christmas and New Year holiday period to keep the roads in South Dublin open to traffic.

Further updates and additional information is available on the Council’s website: www.sdcc.ie

4^th January 2010

12 noon