With the treacherous road conditions of the past winter still fresh in the mind of many of the county’s inhabitants, the council this week announced an additional 33.5 kilometres of Westmeath roads which will be gritted in the case of extreme freezing weather conditions.
Thanks to an increase in the budget to be set aside for road gritting, councillors were asked to nominate routes they felt should be added to those already on the list.
The 33.5km of extra road include an additional 7km of road between Castlepollard and the Meath border; the Mullingar to Longford Road via Moyvore and Ballymahon; the Killucan to Raharney road; 1.5km on the new Clonmore Link Road in Mullingar; and the road from Mullingar to the Gaelscoil in Cullion.
The decisions were made on criteria including traffic volume, the topography of lands, and whether the sections of road adjoined neighbouring counties.
The council has also agreed to deposit additional ‘back-up’ supplies of grit in various locations around the county, which will be available for locals to use to grit some stretches of road.
The announcement was met with approval from the majority of councillors at this week’s meeting of Westmeath County Council.
However, noticing that the additional routes were confined to the northern part of the county, Athlone’s Cllr Mark Cooney quipped; “I presume the presentation for the south of the county will be presented at a later stage.”
Responding to queries about omitted routes, county manager Dan McLoughlin said councillors had to accept there were limited resources available.
“We need to be upfront about what we will and won’t do, and the list of gritted routes will be on the website. These are the ones we guarantee the public we will do every night. In the daytime we will get to additional roads, subject to assessment by area engineers.
“In September/ October we will start putting loads of grit in local areas for use on hills etc. It will be reviewed annually,” he added.
