The winter maintenance period lasts from mid October to the end of April each year. Tipperary County Council is 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.
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 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 quid pro quo agreements with Waterford, Offaly and Kilkenny County Councils to treat routes in each other’s areas to increase efficiency of the treatment routes.
The Council has a total capacity of approx 3,880 tonnes in its salt storage facilities, which is sufficient to treat a 5 day snow event.
Twelve crews are rostered to pre-salt Priority 1 and Priority 2 Routes (approx. 1,010 Km) 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 particular night.
In the event of dangerous road conditions i.e. 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 in accordance with prevailing conditions on the road.
Tipperary County Council is not responsible for any accidents that may occur as a result of poor driving conditions.
