Tipperary County Council’s Winter Maintenance Schedule 2016/17.
Priority 1 Routes (Red) – Priority 2 Routes (Blue).
The winter maintenance period lasts from mid October to the end of April each year. Tipperary County Council are constantly striving to improve its winter maintenance service; however, neither the local authority nor Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) (formerly the NRA) has a statutory obligation to pre-salt roads. The aim, however, is to keep priority roads safe and as free as possible from wintry hazards.
Having regard to the Council’s resources in terms of finance, equipment and staffing levels and to maximise benefit to road users, 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 are on a priority basis.
(In extreme weather events Priority 1 routes will take precedence over Priority 2 routes in terms of allocation of available resources).
The Council has a quid pro quo agreements with Waterford, Limerick, and Kilkenny County Councils to treat routes in each other’s areas to increase efficiency of treatment routes and have three storage barns with a total capacity of approx 2,700 tonnes of salt, which is sufficient to treat a 5 day snow event. Eleven crews are rostered to pre-salt Priority 1 and Priority 2 Routes (approx. 1,010 Km) before the onset of expected icy conditions. These spreaders can have snow blades 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 particular night.
In the event of dangerous road conditions i.e. black ice, white frost, snow, flooding, muck or any other unscheduled and therefore hazardous condition, the responsibility remains for the road user to drive at an appropriate speed with all due care and attention and in accordance with all prevailing conditions.
Remember Tipperary County Council are not responsible for any accidents that may occur as a result of poor driving conditions.
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