Where were the Gritters?

blackbox

:mad:

Snow was forecast so I, being a sensible chap, I left my car at the bottom of the drive as a precaution last night.

Got going OK, but I was a bit disappointed to see that the link road (R764) hadn't been gritted - it's quite hilly and usually gets done, but I guessed that there must have been greater priorities and didn't think about it any more.

Got to the N11 and couldn't believe it - hadn't been gritted at all. Come on Wicklow Co. council - what's going on? - the forecasts couldn't have been more explicit.

I didn't get to work until 1030 due to the bumper to bumper traffic crawling at 10kph.

Was Wicklow County Council the only local authority who negelected its duty?

Mena

Newbridge / Naas were some kind of chaos this morning. So no, WCC are not the only ones.

smash

The M50 wasn't even gritted!

OldmanMondeo

The drivers were snowed in at home

greatgoal

its the cutbacks in the public service,no overtime.

degsie

Got to work this morning just after 8am. Looked across the street to see five gritters parked up in the m50 compound in Sandyford. At around 9am I spotted some activity and two of then left. The other three didn't start till about 10am! You could tell that they were all parked up overnight!

Cookie_Monster

degsie wrote: »

Got to work this morning just after 8am. Looked across the read to see five gritters parked up in the m50 compound in Sandyford. At around 9am I spotted some activity and two of then left. The other three didn't start till about 10am! You could tell that they were all parked up overnight!

:rolleyes:

blackbox

degsie wrote: »

Got to work this morning just after 8am. Looked across the read to see five gritters parked up in the m50 compound in Sandyford. At around 9am I spotted some activity and two of then left. The other three didn't start till about 10am! You could tell that they were all parked up overnight!

- must have been waiting for their mate to arrrive with the breakfast rolls before making a move.

I wonder does the NRA have anything to say about this?

Stephen

Interesting, the national secondary road I travel to work here in Kilkenny this morning seemed to be well gritted. Only took about 5 minutes longer than usual to get to work.

fifth

I crashed my car tonight on the icy/snowy roads in wexford town. 2006 Honda accord.. Straight into a wall.

timmywex

funkyflea wrote: »

I crashed my car tonight on the icy/snowy roads in wexford town. 2006 Honda accord.. Straight into a wall.

Oh unlucky mate, where abouts ya do that?


Your not the only one, the gards crashed in wexford town today aswell, prop a write off aparantly! :L

Tabnabs

degsie wrote: »

Got to work this morning just after 8am. Looked across the street to see five gritters parked up in the m50 compound in Sandyford. At around 9am I spotted some activity and two of then left. The other three didn't start till about 10am! You could tell that they were all parked up overnight!

Passed two pile ups on the M50 this morning, black ice and driving too close to the car ahead, deadly combination, well done DLRCoCo & NRA :mad:

McSpud

greatgoal wrote: »

its the cutbacks in the public service,no overtime.

Overtime implies they work the rest of the time.

Didn't the UK government prosecute the local authorities a few years when I think the M25 was blocked & drivers stranded.

I know they can't cover the entire country but all main roads & towns/cities should be 100% clear, no excuses.

fifth

timmywex wrote: »

Oh unlucky mate, where abouts ya do that?


Your not the only one, the gards crashed in wexford town today aswell, prop a write off aparantly! :L

Yeah I'm raging. I've never had an accident before, but was unavoidable had zero control over the car. Had to avoid a collision so just hit the wall instead.

Jemmy

blackbox wrote: »

Was Wicklow County Council the only local authority who negelected its duty?

Grit wouldn't do much to a few centimetres of snow it turns to slush anyway, plus they have to cover huge length with just one truck. They do all they can with what they have, besides how was it meant you grit with all you fools parked on the roads in the way!

Oh and the N11 is not in the wicklow area from the Glenview on Northbound, thats either bray or the NRA!

ART6

McSpud wrote: »

Didn't the UK government prosecute the local authorities a few years when I think the M25 was blocked & drivers stranded.

Years ago while working in the UK the main (and only) road into our small town was blocked completely with deep snow. The council wouldn't do anything about it -- said the drifts were too deep. So a couple of us borrowed a big shovel loader from a local aggregate firm, and got the cops to let us take it on the road to clear it. We got the road open and several marooned trucks then got through, but the council said they wouldn't keep it cleared since they had other priorities. The local police super calmly announced that in that case he intended to arrest the County Engineer. Within an hour the place was flooded with gritters:D

Wossack

not really relevent, but thought it funny at the time (reminded me)

bout a month ago I was out for a walk and saw a gritting truck driving and spraying, I'm guessing, some sort of salt mixture (air was a bit salty). I was doubly surprised, firstly I'd never seen one in ireland ever and really didnt think the weather called for it at the time, and secondly, there was some gombeen tailgating it and getting covered in the shit lol :pac: Was absolutely covering his car, think he might even have had his wipers on due to it :eek:

Cookie_Monster

Wossack wrote: »

not really relevent, but thought it funny at the time (reminded me)

bout a month ago I was out for a walk and saw a gritting truck driving and spraying, I'm guessing, some sort of salt mixture (air was a bit salty). I was doubly surprised, firstly I'd never seen one in ireland ever and really didnt think the weather called for it at the time, and secondly, there was some gombeen tailgating it and getting covered in the shit lol :pac: Was absolutely covering his car, think he might even have had his wipers on due to it :eek:

LOL what a muppet

McSpud

Wossack wrote: »

bout a month ago I was out for a walk and saw a gritting truck driving and spraying, I'm guessing, some sort of salt mixture (air was a bit salty). I was doubly surprised, firstly I'd never seen one in ireland ever and really didnt think the weather called for it at the time,:

Might have been around similar time but I saw one in Blackhall Place opposite is that Kings Inn (the legal place anyway). I too was surprised as had never seen before. Despite a full lane separating me & the truck he sprayed my car as I think he was going too fast.

thebman

Maynooth didn't appear to be gritted at all this morning. I was walking on a back road though. Footpaths and road were lethal. Slippy as hell.

No I didn't fall :P

As usual the slope down to the train station from the far side of the town hadn't been gritted at all and it is really asking for someone to fall and sue them over it TBH.

Don't they have an obligation to keep the entrance to the train station usable?

Red Sleeping Beauty

How many of these ploughs/gritters are there for dublin ?

Do they spread enough grit ?
I saw one today a few times and it looked to me like it wasn't actually spraying that much. I was in Glasgow last Sunday and just before it started snowing they had a grit truck out at 1Am covering the roads and they were spraying much more than the roads I've seen gritted (is that a verb?)

A-Trak

alan dunne 27 wrote: »

Do they spread enough grit ?

Driving by one this morning in Dundrum, the speed and amount of grit that hit my ca passing it by was enough to have me worrying I'd have paint chips!

So seems volume of grit isn't the problem. just the gritters themselves.

When I was living in the south of England a few years ago, the council used to have big plastic hoppers full of grit in the council estate I lived in. My 1st thought in seeing them was "Pffft, never had them in Dublin and we did alright!" - typical Irish attitude.

The locals were able to grit their own roads and driveways and the clever ones took a bag of it in the boot in case the did get stuck somewhere.

Red Sleeping Beauty

Scotland has them grit hoppers as well. My attitude was "If we had them in Dublin they'd be set on fire/broken into/have the grit stolen/pissed in and on".

I think most of the hoppers I saw had a pad lock on them. We have the same climate as most of the UK don't we ? It'd make sense in my short term, off the top of head opinion at the minute and I'm sure the folk in the countryside where only the biggest main roads are cleared.

Mr Benevolent

On a barely related side note, there's no salt in the mixture, it's grit and molasses.

http://www.nra.ie/NetworkManagement/Maintenance/WinterMaintenance/

NRA say they salt. Molasses is not mentioned.

peasant

Confab wrote: »

On a barely related side note, there's no salt in the mixture, it's grit and molasses.

Molasses?

So you mean insted of using sugar for my tea I can save some money during these difficult times and use scrapings from the road instead?

Great !

Hagar

When all the snow is gone and all the grits has washed doen the sewers clogging the whole place up don't forget to get the underside of your cars steam cleaned to remove the salt deposits. Salt corrosion is costly.

Tabnabs

alan dunne 27 wrote: »

Scotland has them grit hoppers as well.

A mate of mine is just back from Glasgow and he said the locals are up in arms as the council had given up refilling the grit bins due to "cutbacks" and so most were left empty this winter... :rolleyes:

On the BBC news last night they showed how the councils were sending trucks hundreds of miles to collect a by product of salt manufacturing which was being used now as grit and sand stocks were almost depleted. This massive pile had lain idle for about 12 years and the factory owners were wondering how to dispose it it!

Jemmy

Confab wrote: »

On a barely related side note, there's no salt in the mixture, it's grit and molasses.

Other way around no Grit, just salt and molasses!

fricatus

Saw a car buried in a ditch on the N9 between Ballyhale and Mullinavat (KK) this morning. Looked as if the girl had got out OK but the car didn't look too healthy.

As I passed by, the stability control on my car started kicking in like mad. Obviously there was a big patch of ice there, and it looked like no attempt had been made to grit the area.

That's a very busy stretch of road, and worse, it's where a wide "overtaking zone" narrows into a boreen, so you always have people doing 80 mph getting back onto their own side of the road.

Really, Kilkenny county council have to get their finger out of their ar$e. It's unacceptable. If I was that girl, I'd sue for every penny I could get.

JustMe1982

Dyflin wrote: »

Passed two pile ups on the M50 this morning, black ice and driving too close to the car ahead, deadly combination, well done DLRCoCo & NRA :mad:

If you were going north bound and there was a truck involved, it could of been me :cool:

Red Sleeping Beauty

Dyflin wrote: »

A mate of mine is just back from Glasgow and he said the locals are up in arms as the council had given up refilling the grit bins due to "cutbacks" and so most were left empty this winter... :rolleyes:

On the BBC news last night they showed how the councils were sending trucks hundreds of miles to collect a by product of salt manufacturing which was being used now as grit and sand stocks were almost depleted. This massive pile had lain idle for about 12 years and the factory owners were wondering how to dispose it it!

Oh, I didn't know that. I left just as the snow started, didn't see what was in the hoppers as they're shut but I did see a gritter drive through my girlfriend's estate. Incidently their main bus drives down her road which is literally a small estate road - over there they have bus routes that drive through housing estates no matter how small the road.

timmywex

Thats what happens when theres no gritters