Winter temperatures will impact 1,340 km of roads and footpaths

Over 1,000 kilometres of footpaths and 340 kilometres of roads in South Dublin County Council will be impacted by winter temperatures in the next months.

South Dublin County Council presented their Winter Services Plan 2025, which will be in place from Monday, October 14 to Wednesday, April 30.

“Gritting will take place at 7pm and 5am on all the major distributor roads,” said SDCC Senior Engineer Gary Walsh at the Tallaght area meeting on Tuesday, October 29.

“Spread-rates of rock salt will be at 10 grams per square meter, with brine sprayed in conjunction on some routes.”

Mr Walsh said a new brine facility was also installed in Palmerstown and was happy to report that Winter Services are getting more “environment-friendly” year after year.

“Brine is now made up of 23 per cent salt and 77 per cent water, which allows a quicker acting treatment and reduces the impact on the environment,” he said.

In case of severe cold weather, icing or snow, some of the major routes which cover emergency services and food distributions will be prioritised.

The distribution of salt bins around villages and estates across county became “more geographically even” according to Mr Walsh, who advised a map can be accessed by residents at www.sdcc.ie.

However, when it comes to footpaths, parks and estates, gritting and salting are still up to residents themselves.

“The material is not the issue, it’s accessible to everyone, but we don’t have the manpower resources to cover footpaths and estates ourselves,” explained Mr Walsh.

“We will address the main footpaths by taking resources from other departments only in case of severe weather conditions.”

Following a request by councillors, South Dublin County Council committed to provide informative material in the coming weeks to instruct residents on taking care of their footpaths and estate roads during winter.

2023 had an “overall very, very mild winter,” according to the council’s report, with severe conditions only occurring for some time in January.

The lowest road temperature recorded was -5.4° Celsius – 2,500 tons of rock salt were spread throughout the season.