Deputy Denis Naughten has called on the National Roads Authority to publish a road map highlighting which roads throughout the country are to be gritted during the winter period without further delay.
“While all national roads are to be gritted during the poor weather, only a small proportion of regional and local roads - which carry 62 per cent of all road traffic - will be safe to drive on during severe weather,” said Deputy Naughten.
“Some local authorities have published maps showing which roads are gritted but there is no comprehensive map for the country. This leads to anomalies when a driver inadvertently crosses a county boundary, only to find out after they skid that the road has not been gritted, and this is just not good enough.
“Each local authority has approved a winter gritting programme based on an agreed schedule of roads, so there should be no difficulty in providing a nationwide map. If such a national map can exist for speed traps, now that the NRA is in charge of funding of all local roads surely we should have a countrywide map of which roads are to be maintained during the winter period?
“Drivers have enough to watch out for during poor weather without having to watch for county boundary signs to see if the road is being gritted. Treacherous roads claimed lives last winter and if a national map was made available it would allow drivers to plan their route in advance to avoid ungritted roads and potential accidents,” he concluded.
