Council's brine system for treating roads won't be ready this winter

Westmeath County Council is planning to start using a brine solution when treating icy roads, saying it will be more effective and eco-friendly than using rock salt alone, however the initiative is not expected to be rolled out until next winter.

The spraying of roads with brine, or liquid salt, before they are gritted has been mooted in previous years and some county councillors this week voiced frustration that its introduction wouldn't be ready for the current winter season.

Director of Services, Barry Kehoe, told a meeting of the local authority in Athlone that the council was looking to set up a brine production facility in Mullingar, next to where it stores its salt for the winter, and there had been ongoing engagement with the Department of Transport and Transport Infrastructure Ireland about this.

He said the brine facility was likely to require a part 8 planning application, and alterations would also have to be made to council trucks in order to fit them with brine tanks.

"We'll fit a tank and a sprayer to the truck that will put a layer of wet brine on the road to prepare it for the salt that will then be spread. It's more effective, and it means you need to use less salt," Mr Kehoe explained.

"The less salt we're spraying the better, because it can get into water courses."

The council spends in the region of €450,000 to €500,000 on the treatment of roads each winter, and Mr Kehoe said the brine system would be more cost-effective and would allow additional stretches of road, which are not currently treated, to be added to the winter route schedule.

Currently, the council treats 522km of secondary roads, regional roads, local roads, and a single-carriageway section of the N4; while 78km of motorway and dual carriageway in Westmeath is treated by a contractor, CRJV, on behalf of Transport Infrastructure Ireland.

There is capacity for the council to store 1,200 tonnes of salt in Mullingar, while a further 300 tonnes can be kept at its facility in Blyry, Athlone.

Mr Kehoe said that, last winter, 3,356 tonnes of salt was used on the 61 occasions when council staff were called out to treat the roads. This was up from 38 call-outs during the milder winter of 2018/19.

"Winter maintenance takes significant resources. Each time the trucks are called out, it costs approximately €10,000 in terms of vehicles, salt, and drivers," he said.

Cllr Vinny McCormack called for regular updates on the progress of the new brine facility, saying that after he was elected in 2019 he was told it would be up and running ahead of the winter of 2020 but this was no longer the case.

"We never gave any guarantees on when it would be available," Mr Kehoe responded. "We hope it will be in place at the start of next winter, and we will then be able to treat additional roads."

A number of councillors also raised concerns about particular routes which are not currently treated in winter and said it was important that they were added to the treatment routes as soon as possible.

Untreated roads mentioned at the meeting included stretches from Ballinagore to Dalystown; part of the R391 between Horseleap and Dysart; Mount Temple to Athlone; the R444 Castledaly Road; Corr Cross to Glasson; and Skeagh to Ballinacargy.

Mr Kehoe said motorists needed to always drive defensively in winter conditions. "People should never assume that a road has been treated and that they can drive at high speed," he said.

During his presentation on winter readiness, he stated that the council had its flood emergency plan in place in the event of any significant flooding incidents.

The meeting also heard that a road had recently been raised in Muckanagh, near Glasson, at a cost of approximately €200,000, to help alleviate winter flooding issues there.