Portlaoise gets more salt bins for icy winter but no extra Laois roads treated

Winter is coming and Laois County Council has announced extra salt bins coming to Portlaoise housing estates, but no extra roads will be gritted around the county.

The council has activated its roads treatment programme, ready to act on frosty weather forecasts from mid October to the end of April.

While the council says it is "not responsible for any accidents that may occur as a result of poor driving conditions" it will treat the same amount of roads as it did last year, focusing on busier and main roads.

They will grit some 478 kilometres of main roads, less than a quarter of Laois road network, leaving about 1,800 kilometres untreated. The routes have changed little in a decade. The council say is it down to limited trucks, staff and money.

In Portlaoise Municipal District, they will be provide extra salt bins following "particular access difficulties" in the heavy snows of last January. The public will have to spread the salt/grit themselves on their local roads.

These will be located at many Portlaoise housing estates including Ardán Glas, Ashton Manor, Borris Little (beside St. Francis School), Highfield Meadows, Kilminchy, Rathevan Heights, Rossdarragh Hill, St. Brigid's Place and Fairgreen.

Others will be added in Abbeyleix, at The Fairways and at Scoil Mhuire NS.

There were already salt bins at the following locations in the district. The carpark of Church of Most Holy Rosary, Abbeyleix, carpark of Ballyroan Community Centre, Scoil Eoin Phol Naofa II, Ballyroan, Ballinakill National School, the layby adjacent to Tobar an Léinn National School, Raheen, carpark at Knock National School, Spink, Ballypickas GAA, Ballypickas Lower, Abbeyleix.

A map of Laois shows the routes that are treated. 

Laois County Council give Priority 1 to the M7 motorway, national roads, and regional roads of strategic importance, for example expressway bus routes, access to the train and bus depots, hospitals, ambulance routes, and fire stations.

Their second priority is to regional roads with a high volume of traffic using the road and access to major schools and industries.
Priority three is for other regional roads, town streets and local county roads on a priority basis.

Laois County Council says that "In the event of dangerous road conditions, that is, black ice, white frost, snow, flooding, muck or any other hazardous road condition, the responsibility is on the driver to drive at an appropriate speed with due care".

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In extreme weather events the council say that priority 1 routes will take precedence over priority 2 routes. This winter the council again has a total capacity of approximately 750 tonnes in its salt storage facilities, enough to treat a 5-day snow event.

Eight crews are rostered to pre-salt priority 1 and priority 2 routes (approximately 478km) before the onset of icy conditions. These spreaders can have snowblades fitted in the event of snow. It is common for a variance in road temperatures to occur across the county, which may result in only some of the routes being pre-treated on any night.