5 November 2001

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

Department for Regional Development’s Roads Service Northern Division will this winter embark on its most extensive ever salting operation, Divisional Manager, Jim Beattie 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 £1.2 million has been allocated for this year’s operation in Northern Division, which takes in the Council areas of Derry, Limavady, Coleraine, Ballymoney, Moyle, Ballymena, Larne and Antrim.

The extent of the complex operation is underlined by the fact that a fleet of 35 gritters and drivers salt a network of 1,300 miles of roads across the Division using 150 tonnes of salt within a timescale of just over three hours.

Mr Beattie 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 main through 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 in service 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 route schedule."

Additional roads which have come onto the salted network in the Division for this winter include Dunderg Road, Macosquin, Lower Newmills Road, Coleraine, Corkey Road, Loughguile, Glebe Road, Ahoghill, Ballee Link, Ballymena and Craigstown Road, Randalstown.

Mr Beattie 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 motorways and the 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 will be employed to clear blocked roads using loading shovels and to seek the assistance of local councils to salt heavily used town centre footways."

Mr Beattie 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 about one per cent on last year. On lightly trafficked roads that are not salted, consideration is being given to placing grit piles or salt boxes at hills, bends or junctions.

The Divisional Manager said: "The salted network caters for 80 per cent of the traffic in the Division. 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 £2.5 million.

"Other road safety related schemes undertaken by Roads Service would have to be sacrificed in order to increase the extent of the salted 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 more than 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 in the Division is salted – around 100 callouts per year – it costs around £11,000. 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, six of which are in Northern Division, 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 Beattie 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 around 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 humid weather conditions and is also helped by the action of 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."