5 November 2001

ROADS SERVICE ALL SET FOR EXTENSIVE WINTER OPERATION (WESTERN DIVISION)

Department for Regional Development’s Roads Service will this winter embark on its most extensive ever salting operation, Western Divisional Manager, Sam Webb, has revealed.

Improvements have been made as a result of a Northern Ireland-wide review of the salting operation and include a three per cent increase in the length of the salted network across the province. There will also be better arrangements for rural areas where there are settlements of more than 100 houses, new arrangements for clearing roads during heavy snow and better information for the public.

Around £1,030,000 has been allocated for this year’s operation in the Division, which stretches from Belleek in the West to Toome in the East.

The extent of the complex operation is underlined by the fact that in Western Division alone, a fleet of 28 gritters and drivers spread 200 tonnes of salt on a network of 1025 miles of roads within a timescale of just over three hours.

Mr Webb said: "Following the heavy snowfall of last winter – the heaviest since 1982 – the former Minister Gregory Campbell initiated a review of DRD Roads Service’s winter service policy to develop better procedures for the future.

"It has been our policy to salt roads carrying more than 1,500 vehicles per day or 1,000 vehicles per day in hilly areas. This year, we intend to also ensure that small settlements of more than 100 dwellings have a salted link via the shortest route to the original salted network.

"Additional routes have also met the required traffic levels as a result of our decision to increase the weighting for buses so that a 40 seater bus is counted as 40 vehicles as opposed to 20 last year. The net result of all of this is a three per cent increase of the salted routes."

In Western Division, roads to The Glebe and Spamount in Strabane Section and Loughmacrory in Omagh along with an extra 20 miles of other roads are to be added to the treated network this year.

Mr Webb revealed that a new snow clearance plan has also been developed as a result of the review for use in extreme snow conditions.

He said: "Depending on the extent and severity of the snow, maximum effort will be concentrated on the more important traffic routes. Clearing snow from trunk roads will be given priority before moving to ‘A’ class roads and busiest urban link roads.

"Once these main routes are open to traffic, Roads Service’s resources will be diverted to the less trafficked roads, especially in urban areas, and will continue until all roads are cleared.

"In prolonged periods of lying snow, contractors and farmers may be employed to clear blocked roads using loading shovels or tractor ploughs. The assistance of local councils is being sought to salt heavily used town centre footways."

Mr Webb said communications are also being improved by production of a Better Winter Service leaflet, which will be widely distributed. From Thursday, 1 November, information on salting activities will be relayed electronically to the broadcast media so that motorists listening to breakfast radio can be kept up to date with road conditions.

This year’s improvements to the winter service operation will mean that around 28 per cent of the total road network in Northern Ireland will be salted, an increase of one per cent on last year. This compares to 27 percent last year. On roads that are not gritted, consideration is being given to placing grit piles at hills, bends or junctions in rural areas, or salt boxes in urban areas.

Mr Webb said: "The salted network caters for 80 per cent of the traffic in Northern Ireland. To cover 90 per cent of the traffic, we would have to double the size of the treated network and the cost would double to £10 million, or £2 million for the Division.

"Other road safety related schemes undertaken by Roads Service would have to be sacrificed in order to salt the entire road network, and that is a price we could not afford to pay.

"Salt costs £20 per tonne and can be effective for up to 15 hours, while asphalt surfacing material costs £40 per tonne and can last for 15 years. Asphalt will probably prevent more accidents and as a result represents a better investment of scarce resources."

It is vital that Roads Service make the correct decision as each time the full network is salted – around 70 callouts per year – it costs around £70,000. For that reason, engineers are helped in the decision-making process by state-of-the-art technology.

This includes ice sensors linked to 16 weather stations across Northern Ireland installed in conjunction with the Meteorological Office and thermal mapping of all roads on the network. The Met Office uses information from the stations along with their own date to provide forecasts, which are transmitted to engineers’ computers.

Mr Webb warned that even with the most careful and thorough planning, winter maintenance is really a battle against nature and most people understand that in exceptional winter conditions there is bound to be some disruption.

He said: "Despite the high quality of the salting operation, ice-free roads cannot be guaranteed. The Met Office can only guarantee 80 per cent accuracy and it takes three hours to salt a route - so your journey could start or end on an untreated section.

"Additionally, rainfall can wash salt away and the wet surface may re-freeze, while salt does not act immediately – requiring traffic to turn the salt and ice into a solution before it becomes effective.

"As the Highway Code points out, whether or not roads are salted, it is the responsibility of all motorists to drive with care in icy or snowy conditions and be prepared for changing conditions.

"While the service we provide is very good we do not claim that we can defy Nature and provide summer driving conditions in the midst of winter."