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Irish Mirror

National

Sarah Barrett

The road gritting plan in your county as Ireland braces for snow and temperatures plunge

Ireland Council Dublin City Council

The weather in Ireland is set to turn baltic in the coming days with a snow warning issued and temperatures set to drop as low as -4 degrees.

Some parts of Ireland woke up to a blanket of snow as the country braces for days of freezing temperatures and hazardous roads.

A Status Yellow ice warning was in place for the entire country until 10am on Tuesday.

A second Status Yellow alert for low temperatures and ice comes into force at 9pm Tuesday and last until 9am Wednesday.

It affects all of Connacht, as well as Cavan, Donegal, Monaghan, Longford, Louth, Meath and Westmeath.

Drivers and pedestrians should commute with caution as a result of icy roads and paths, and we’ve compiled the need to know road gritting plans in your county to help you travel safely.

Each council will have a map available to outline the route their gritting vehicles will take.

This allows any person to log onto their county or city council’s website to plan their route ahead of time.

Some councils will even have a breakdown of the first and second-priority routes that they follow and the times in which their vehicles will be on the roads.

Local Authorities are required to do a major review of their operations and to produce a plan and map detailing the proposed response/operations that the Council will be operating.

You should look at the designated Current Salting Routes and decide your best options to ensure access to the main routes for emergency services and essential trips.

Antrim

Gritted routes here

Armagh

View gritted routes here

Carlow

Under the Carlow County Council Winter Services plan, the winter maintenance period lasts from mid-October to the end of April each year.

Motorists have a general duty of care to consider prevailing weather and road conditions when planning and/or undertaking journeys across the public road network.

Due to the length of road network in County Carlow, it is not feasible to treat all roads in the county during the winter season (October-April).

Accordingly, a form of prioritisation is necessary and routes are divided into the following priority designations :-

Priority 1 Routes – Carlow County Council will seek to ensure, as far as reasonably practicable, the prevention of ice formation and snow accumulation on these routes.
Priority 2 Routes – Carlow County Council will aim to keep priority 2 roads safe and as free as possible from wintry hazards as far as reasonably practicable. In extreme weather events, Priority 1 routes will take precedence over Priority 2 routes in terms of allocation of resources.
Priority 3 Routes – Not treated as part of the normal winter maintenance service. May receive intermittent treatment vents, with gritting material provided at designated locations for local voluntary groups to utilise.

Road-users must not assume that pre-salting services have been provided to the Priority 3 Network.

The map produced to show the Route Priority is available here.

Cavan

Cavan County Council has a gritting plan in place for salting priority routes.

Cavan County Council is responsible for the maintenance of over 3000km of National, Regional and Local Roads throughout the County.

The operation of a winter service is undertaken by the council to minimise the impact of frost, ice or snow on the travelling public.

The council say: “Cavan County Council will endeavour to carry out winter service operations to the best of its ability, within resources available, to alleviate problems caused by adverse weather conditions that affect the people of the County.”

The authority has identified a schedule of priority routes which are gritted with salt, each time it is deemed necessary to do so. Other routes are gritted from time to time as the need arises and within the budgets and resources available.

The map is currently available here

Clare

Clare County Council implements a winter service plan for national primary, national secondary and strategic regional roads.

Priority will be given to the national secondary and strategic regional and local routes.

Treatment involves the controlled placement of salt on these scheduled routes in response to forecasted weather conditions as appropriate.

An ice detection and prediction system ICENET, in conjunction with thermal mapping linked to weather stations in Crusheen M18, Kilrush N68, Lisdoonvarna N67 and Ogonnelloe R463 facilitates Clare County Council in its decision making process.

The duration of the winter maintenance season is normally considered to be six months commencing 17th October, 2022 and ending 30th April, 2023.

Maps can be viewed here.

Cork

Cork County Council’s Roads Directorate is responsible for the maintenance of the largest road network (12,200 km) of any local authority in the country.

This Winter Service Plan attached provides the framework for dealing with winter weather conditions.

This Winter Service Plan provides the framework for dealing with winter weather

conditions on the roads and provides for a planned and coordinated response by Cork County Council.

Footpaths, cycleways, and other local roads will be treated in towns, villages and city

environs as local resources permit when a prolonged period of snow / icy conditions occur.

The road gritting map can be viewed here.

The Winter plan can be viewed here.

Derry

The Department of Infrastructure in NI is responsible for giving advice.

DfI Roads aims to help traffic on main roads move safely in wintry conditions by spreading salt at the most effective times.

Staff are on standby 24 hours a day to monitor and react according to the conditions.

DfI Roads focuses its resources on important routes carrying over 80% of traffic.

You can report an issue with ice and snow, request a new salt box or grit pile, or refilling of an existing salt box online.

The gritting map can be viewed here.

Donegal

Each year Donegal County Council try to ensure that all the major traffic routes in the county are kept in a passable condition, in as far as possible, taking into account the limited resources available.

Donegal Road Gritting Map

For information on gritting routes, weather forecasts, sand and grit locations check out the Donegal Road Gritting map here.

Down

The Road Gritting Map for Co. Down can viewed here

Dublin

Dublin City Council's Winter Maintenance Service ensures that roads, footpaths and pedestrian areas across Dublin remain clear during snow and ice.

When snow falls or ice forms the council are ready with five snow ploughs and ten gritting vehicles to spread salt on priority routes.

Dublin City Council maintains a stock of 2000 tonnes of salt throughout the winter maintenance period for this purpose.

As it is not possible to grit all public thoroughfares, the following are given priority: all major regional roads, arterial routes, Quality Bus Corridors, main commuter routes, access to Dublin Airport and Dublin Port, major public hospitals, fire stations, bus stations and major railway stations.

This work is normally carried out between 2.30am and 6.30am. Other areas may be treated at the request of the emergency services.

Dublin City Council receive specialised road weather information from Transport Infrastructure Ireland systems and Met Éireann.

There are three priority treatment routes established for Dublin City Council.

A map of Dublin Gritting routes can be viewed here

List of Gritted Streets here

Fermanagh

The Department for Infrastructure (DfI) has urged road users to be extra careful on the roads this week as a period of cold weather arrives and industrial action by members of the GMB and Unite unions continues.

You can view gritted routes here

Galway

Galway County Council monitors road conditions through the winter period and has organised a road gritting regime on specific roads listed below if conditions require gritting.

These are priority routes and while every effort will be made to have these routes gritted by morning it cannot be guaranteed as weather conditions i.e. rain, can prevent gritting.

Drivers are warned not to assume that these roads have been gritted.

The fact that a road has been gritted with salt does not mean that it is safe to assume that a person can drive as if no frost/ice had occurred, the same level of care as in frost/ice conditions is required.

Galway Winter service plan 2023 can be viewed here.

Galway County Council use MapAlerter in tandem with their internal GIS service, ArcGIS

Kerry

Kerry County Council has a Winter Services plan in place to deal with wintry and icy conditions.

The roads plan can be viewed here

Kildare

The gritting routes map can be viewed here.

Kilkenny

Kilkenny County Council Winter maintenance policy plan is split into Priority Routes 1, 2, and 3.

The Duty Engineer will inspect the forecast system daily from approximately 2pm or as soon thereafter as the Met Eireann forecast has been received.

The Winter policy plan can be viewed here

The road gritting plan can be viewed here.

Laois

Snow arrived in Laois on Monday night, with scenes of snow capped Slieve Blooms this Tuesday.

The Laois road gritting salting routes can be viewed here

Leitrim

Leitrim County Council will, during severe weather, clear snow/ice from footpaths at strategic locations in the towns and villages.

Property owners are encouraged to clear snow from the footpaths outside their property.

Leitrim County Council appoints Duty Engineers to review the weather conditions and make a decision on the treatment to be carried out, each day during the winter period.

A detailed plan for gritting roads can be found here

An overall map of the Serviced area can be found here

Limerick

It is the policy of Limerick City & County Council to provide a winter service plan, which, as far as reasonably possible, allows the safe movement of traffic on the more

important defined routes of the road network, while minimising delays & accidents directly attributed to adverse weather conditions.

With approximately 4,000 kms of roadway in County Limerick, it would be unrealistic to expect that every road and pedestrian area in the county can be treated.

Therefore, priority has to be given to National Route system (Priority 1), which carries the most intensive volumes of commuter traffic.

Routes to be provided with a winter service have been prioritised into three classifications in accordance with the TII Draft Winter Service Manual.

The Winter plan can be viewed here

A map of all Limerick routes can be found here

Longford

Longford County Council monitors road conditions and in the event of frost and snow the County Council implements a winter gritting programme based on an agreed priority schedule of roads.

To view a full list of the routes, processes, procedures and key roles employed by Longford County Council, to deliver the winter service for County Longford please view:

MAPS: Winter Maintenance Map click here .

The Council has endeavoured to provide as much information as it can to members of the public relating to the treatment of roads during periods of severe weather.

Winter service plan here

Louth

Louth County Council need to update their website with information on gritting roads ahead of icy conditions.

The Duty Engineer makes assessments of conditions in Louth using a combination of information from Met Eireann & automated weather stations located around the county.

Mayo

Mayo County Council ordinarily treats 1,100 km of road across 21 treatment routes which equates to 100% of the National primary network, 100% of the national secondary network, 82% of regional roads and 3% of the local road network.

The Duty Engineer makes assessments of conditions in Mayo using a combination of information from Met Eireann & automated weather stations located around the county.

A map of treated routes can be viewed here, including the plan

Meath

Meath County Council provides the following winter service:

24/7 monitoring of road conditions from the middle of October until the end of April, using detailed predictions provided by Met Eireann, roadside weather stations, and ice prediction software.
A fleet of 11 dedicated spreaders is used to spread salt on a strategic network of 800 kilometres of Priority 1 and 2 roads whenever road frosts are forecast. This network is detailed in the map above.
11 lorry-mounted snow ploughs for use during significant snow/sleet conditions.
Priority 1 routes refers to all National Primary and National Secondary routes within Meath. These routes are treated during all weather events.
Priority 2 Routes refers to all of the regional roads in Meath (as shown in the gritting map).

These are treated as part of the normal winter service but may have interruptions to treatment in certain severe weather events.

Winter Gritting routes can be viewed here

Monaghan

The County Council receives information from Met Eireann and Vaisala Bureau Service during the months October to April.

The following information is received:

17th October – 30th April - 24 hour and 5-day forecasts
Ice Predication Graphs – Issued approx. 2.00pm every day
Regular Updating Services
24 hour Consultancy Service from the Met Eireann

The public are advised to:

Look at the designated Salting Routes and decide the best options to ensure access to the main routes for emergency services and essential trips.
Adapt their driving to the prevailing weather conditions.

Salted route maps can be viewed here

Offaly

Routes are designated a priority rating of between 1 and 3 based upon the particular class of public road, traffic volumes carried and the importance of the route on a national, regional or local level.

National and regional routes are treated as a priority as there is no further capacity to extend the routes.

The priority rating assigned to a particular route also has an associated stated level of service to be delivered on the route.

Route schedule here

Offaly gritted roads map here

Roscommon

Roscommon County Council’s are committed to maintain a certain level of service on specified roads throughout the County.

The level of service is maintained by responding to disruptive winter weather conditions causing frost, ice formation or snow on public roads.

The Map can be viewed here

Sligo

Sligo County Council deals with ice and snow conditions on the roads in County Sligo.

Planned treatment responses involve spreading salt on the road during frost and ploughing snow during snow periods.

The Council’s objective is to provide an effective and efficient winter service within the resources available to minimise the negative impacts of frost, ice or snow on the travelling public, i.e.

Allow the safe passage of vehicles and pedestrians on Priority 1 (National Roads) and Priority 2 Roads
Minimise delays due to winter weather conditions
Ensure operations are undertaken safely and efficiently

The level of service will vary with the priority assigned to particular routes e.g. Priority 1 roads will be given a higher priority than priority 2 roads etc.

The Sligo road plan can be viewed here

Salted route maps can be viewed here

Tipperary

Tipperary County Council look after the winter maintenance of roads in Tipperary is prioritised on the following basis:-

Priority 1: M7 Motorway, M8 Motorway, National Roads, and Regional Roads of strategic importance, e.g. Expressway Bus routes, access to Train and Bus Depots, Hospitals, Ambulance routes, and Fire Stations.
Priority 2: Regional Roads with high volume of traffic using the road and access to major schools and industries
Priority 3: Other regional roads, town streets and local county roads on a priority basis.

Road Gritting Map routes can be viewed here

Tyrone

Tyrone Gritting road routes can be viewed here

Waterford

During periods of cold weather in Waterford, roads are gritted daily in a priority order:

Red - Priority 1
Blue - Priority 2
Green - Priority 3

Priority 1 and Priority 2 are the main roads in use in the City and County.

Priority 3 describes the smaller local roads.

The communications plan for a severe weather event shows that Priority 3 roads are rarely gritted (only when sustained snow is on the ground).

Gritted roads can be viewed here

Waterford City and County Council have 2 main ways of keeping citizens up to date, in as timely and efficient a manner as circumstances allow.

MapAlerter - this is our free SMS texting service. Sign up for free to get alerts concerning your local area.

By online update - our channels on social media ( Facebook and Twitter )

Our Severe Weather website - Waterford Weather Alerts

Westmeath

During the winter months Westmeath County Council monitor road conditions and in the event of frost and snow the County Council implement a winter gritting programme based on an agreed schedule of roads adopted by the elected members.

Winter service plan here

Gritted roads map in Westmeath

Wexford

Due to the length of the road network in County Wexford, it is not feasible to treat all roads in the County during the Winter Season (17 October 2022 to 30 April 2023).

Accordingly, a form of prioritisation is necessary, and routes are divided into thefollowing three priority designations:

Priority 1 Routes (Red Routes).
Priority 2 Routes (Blue Routes).
Priority 3 Routes (Green Routes)

There are five designated salting routes: Enniscorthy; Gorey; New Ross; Wexford; and Regional Roads.

Each route has its own designated salt spreader.

There are two drivers assigned to each route. Drivers are utilised on alternate call-outs, i.e. if Driver A attends a call-out, Driver B will attend the subsequent call-out

The Winter Service plan for Wexford gritted routes and roads can be viewed here

Visit the Winter Ready website for tips and advice for coping with winter weather:

To provide practical advice on how best to prepare for the coming winter
To ensure the public are aware of where advice and help can be found, if needed
To reassure the public that preparations are being made and arrangements have been put in place to ensure that there will be a coordinated response to severe weather events

MapAlerter - Free Localised Alert Service

Subscribe to MapAlerter to receive localised text or email alerts for specific topics like road works, water outages and emergency situations like severe flooding or weather.

Wicklow

The treatment of roads by Wicklow County Council during the Winter Service Period is based on a hierarchy of priority, which is defined as follows.

Priority 1 (Red Routes).

These are listed in the table below and consist primarily of routes which are of national importance (For Wicklow that is the N81).

These routes will be kept serviceable by Wicklow County Council as far as is reasonably practicable in all weather conditions.

Priority 2 (Blue Routes).

These routes listed below are of regional and local importance and Wicklow County Council will ensure as far as is reasonably practicable that these routes are kept serviceable. However, in extreme and/or prolonged weather events the maintenance of serviceability of Priority 1 Routes will take precedence over Priority 2 Routes at all times.

Priority 3 (Unmarked Routes).

These routes consist of the balance of the regional road network and the local road network.

Gritted Road maps for Wicklow can be viewed here

TOP 10 SAFETY TIPS’ FOR DRIVING IN SNOW AND ICE

When temperatures dip below freezing driving conditions can become treacherous, the risk of ice or snow on the roads increases.

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has, the following ‘Top 10 Safety Tips’ for motorists driving in snow and ice. They are;

1. Get a grip. Remember your only contact with the road surface is your tyres so it’s vital that they are up to the task in icy and snowy conditions. Check tyres, including spare wheel, and replace them if the tread depth falls below 3mm. Check that tyres are inflated to the correct tyre pressure. Lack of grip can occur even on treated roads so drive slowly in the highest gear possible, manoeuvre gently and avoid harsh braking. Replace tyres if necessary.

2. Make sure you can see. Clear your windows and mirrors before you set out, carry a screen scraper and de-icer. Do not use hot water on the windscreen as it can crack the glass. Replace windshield wiper blades if necessary. De-mist the inside of your windows thoroughly. Make sure your windshield washer system works and is full of an anti-icing fluid. Remember too that heavy snowfall will reduce visibility! Watch out for grit/salt spreaders and snow ploughs. The glare from the sun can be dazzling in the winter when the sun is low in the sky, so wear sunglasses in these conditions.

3. Check & use your lights. Use your dipped headlights so that others will see you. Make sure your headlights and taillights are all in working order, replace broken bulbs. Make sure lights are clear of snow.

4. Gently does it. Manoeuvre gently, slow down and leave extra distance between you and the vehicle in front. Too much steering is bad and avoid harsh braking and acceleration. Use the highest gear possible to avoid wheel spin. Select a low gear when travelling downhill especially if through bends. Falling snow, fog, rain, or hail will reduces visibility. Do not hang on to the tail lights of the vehicle in front of you a sit can give a false sense of security. When you slow down, use your brakes so that the brake lights warn drivers behind you.

5. Watch out for "black ice." If the road looks polished or glossy it could be, "black ice” one of winter's worst hazards: Black Ice is difficult to see! It is nearly transparent ice that often looks like a harmless puddle or is overlooked entirely. Watch out for black ice, especially in sheltered / shaded areas on roads, under trees and adjacent to high walls.

6. Give yourself a brake. If you get into a skid, you need to know if your vehicle has ABS (Anti- Lock Braking Systems). After you "Step" on the brake the ABS begins cycling — you will feel pulses in the pedal or hear the system working. It's easy to properly use antilock brakes: Remember - Step, Stay and Steer. Step on the pedal. Stay on the pedal. Steer around the obstacle. (A warning: A little bit of steering goes a very long way in an emergency).

For vehicles without ABS, you'll have to rely on the old-fashioned ‘Cadence Braking' system: Push the brake pedal until the wheels stop rolling, then immediately release the brake enough to allow the wheels to begin turning again.

7. How does your vehicle help? Check in your owner’s manual and find out if your vehicle has any safety assist technology like Electronic Stability Control (ESC) or Antilock Braking System (ABS) and know how they assist your driving in severe weather conditions. But remember technology offers no miracles. Don't let these lull you into overestimating the available traction.

8. Be Prepared! In prolonged icy or snowy driving conditions it is advisable to carry the following in the boot of the car.

High Visibility Vest
Tow rope
Spare bulbs
Spare fuel
A shovel
Appropriate footwear in case you have to leave your vehicle i.e. boots
A hazard warning triangle
Spare wheel (with tyre at correct pressure and tread)
Check that your spare wheel is in good condition and is fully inflated. Some cars may have an inflation repair kit instead of a spare wheel. Make sure that you know how to use it.
De-icing equipment (Both for glass and door locks)
First aid kit (in good order)
A fire extinguisher (fully operative)
A working torch
A car blanket, additional clothing & some food and water in preparation for driving you should also ensure:
The vehicle is properly maintained, serviced and engine oil viscosity is suitable for cold conditions.
Have the strength of coolant/antifreeze measured.
Ensure vehicle has adequate supply of fuel for journey
.Consider carrying some salt or sand.
Give someone an estimated time of arrival at your proposed destination.
Carry a mobile phone and spare, fully charged, battery (if you don’t have a car charger)

9. Get informed. Listen to local weather and traffic reports. The RSA has prepared helpful guide ‘Severe Weather Advice for Road Users’ which you can download from the RSA’s website. It has lots more useful advice on dealing with the difficult road conditions.

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