Council ready for extreme weather events if they arise

After the first snow of the year fell across many parts of country last week, Fingal County Council outlined some of the resources it has on standby if the weather deteriorates for the remainder of winter.

The council has:

?¢ Approximately 3,500 tonnes of road salt stored in two facilities at Coolmine (Dublin 15) and Watery Lane (Swords)

?¢ A new purpose built salt barn was constructed at its Watery Lane depot in 2013 and filled with salt to ensure plentiful long-term supply in the event of a prolonged period of very cold weather.

?¢ Eight road salting vehicles which it can use over seven routes allowing it to have one spare vehicle in case of breakdown.

?¢ Each of the gritting trucks has a snowplough that can be attached to the front of the vehicle so it therefore has eight snowploughs available.

?¢ Twenty-one trained drivers which has been increased from nine in 2010.

?¢ Ten supervisors are also available to oversee the road-salting schedule (increased from three in 2010).

?¢ A roster of three qualified engineers make decisions (one on call at a time) as to whether or not the council salts roads based on information from the Icecast system based on predicted road temperatures and weather conditions provided from Met Eireann.

A spokeswoman for Fingal County Council said that should weather conditions deteriorate further or beyond the normal ability for the council to respond to a bad weather event, a range of Major Emergency Plans and procedures were in place for Fingal and the Eastern region.

These plans can be activated as required, working with the other principal response agencies namely An Garda Siochana and the Health Service Executive (HSE). The fire service is also part of the local authority response.

“Even when a major emergency has not been declared we can use the same rehearsed procedures to mobilise an appropriate response to a weather related crisis situation if it arises,

? the spokeswoman told Northside People.

The council’s annual winter service plan is available at www.fingal.ie/roads-and-travel/winter-road-salting/