ROAD GRITTING:SOME 4,000 tonnes of urgently needed salt is to arrive at Limerick Port in the early hours of tomorrow before being distributed to local authorities to meet the unprecedented nationwide demand for road-gritting material.
Shannon Foynes Port Company has confirmed that Friday’s salt consignment will be its third shipment of salt in as many weeks and has already departed the UK’s third largest port, Tees Port in the north east of England.
Local authorities from the west, north west, south and midlands, including counties worst hit by the prolonged freezing weather, are due to take consignments of salt as soon as it arrives at Limerick Port.
The massive cargo began arriving at Limerick Port during Christmas week and was the first handled by Shannon Foynes Port Company after it reached an agreement with importers Lagan Ltd earlier in 2009.
Shannon Foynes Port Company interim chief executive Pat Keating said the consignment would bring the amount of salt imported through the company’s terminal at Limerick in the last three weeks to 12,000 tonnes.
The National Roads Authority (NRA) said: “This is the just another of a number of consignments of salt which will continue to arrive in the country for the foreseeable future. “These are consignments which local authorities have requested and during this crisis, the NRA’s function is to assist in the co-ordination of the assignment of the salt to the various areas. The national routes are the primary corridors and the main concern and they are our responsibility”.
The Department of Transport said yesterday: “The department fully understands that the prolonged severe weather will have a significant impact on maintenance budgets and have separately requested information on costs and other details of gritting operations.”