COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF RATHFARNHAM AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

QUESTION NO.  8

QUESTION: Councillor C. Keane

"To ask the Manager for a report on the road gritting/snow management policy for the Rathfarnham area?"

REPLY:

Since 16th December 2009, the Council has carried out - twice daily, morning and evening gritting runs on the 350 km of the roads that are included in our gritting routes, with particular emphasis on the main commuting routes. This constitutes over 40% of the total roads in South Dublin County Council’s area. The gritting generally takes place at 7.00pm and 5.00am. Since the New Year additional spot gritting has taken place during the day throughout the County,

Based on advance forecasts provided by Met Eireann, the Council had anticipated the onset of adverse weather conditions and had stock piled the maximum storage capacity of 750 tonnes of red rock salt in its facilities. This quantity of gritting material is normally sufficient to provide for 25 gritting days under normal predicted conditions / average winter weather conditions and the normal winter gritting season lasts from November to March. Due to the prolonged period of cold weather and the continuous gritting of the roads, it was necessary for the Council to source additional gritting supplies and additional gritting materials were successfully procured all through the festive holiday period and into the New Year.

It is important to acknowledge the contribution and sacrifices made by the Council’s gritting crews and other Council staff who have worked tirelessly over the entire Christmas and New Year holiday period to keep the roads in South Dublin open to traffic and other core services available. Staff, many of whom have small children at home, worked on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve and New Years Day unselfishly and their dedication and diligence was paramount in leading the Council’s efforts and responses to the emergency situation.

To date the number of additional man hours deployed to gritting the County’s roads and clearing of footpaths since the start of the recent prolonged spell of inclement weather is now in excess of 7,500 man hours. Over 13,000 linear kilometers of road have been gritted in the County since the start of the cold spell, utilising all 8 of the Council’s Gritting Trucks and deploying over thirty staff to the gritting and salting of the National Primary,  National Secondary, Regional and main Local routes in the County. This effort was supplemented by the deployment of over 250 additional staff as well as plant and machinery from all other departments within the Council to clear snow and ice from footpaths in the main commercial and shopping areas in our towns and villages. Attention was directed towards important facilities in the county including hospitals and health care units, libraries and other community facilities etc. Plans were also put in place to manage the effects of the thaw including continued redeployment of staff and machinery in order to reduce the risk of flooding.  The Council endorsed recent calls to individuals and businesses to assist local authorities by clearing the area outside their house or premises.  The Council acknowledges major community efforts in this regard.

The Council was in daily contact with the Gardaí, HSE, Dublin Bus, Civil Defense and our neighbouring authorities to maximize our response and to keep the public informed of the unfolding situation.  All schools in our County were advised to keep in touch with the Council’s website and press releases for weather forecasts and the Council’s ongoing response.