Transport
2,000 Tonnes of Salt Delivered
Each shipment, which was brought in on a Friday, contained about 1,000 tonnes and took about five hours to discharge and deliver to the site
About 2,000 tonnes of rock salt has been delivered to the island over the last two weeks, with the salt coming from Northern Ireland.
The DoI said the ship Ceg Cosmos was chartered by WS Mezeron Ltd which has the contract to supply it with road salt.
The salt was transferred to the Glen Duff salt barn in Lezayre using a fleet of wagons from local hauliers Damm Plant Hire Ltd, Paul Carey & Sons Ltd and JCK Ltd.
Each shipment, which was brought in on a Friday, contained about 1,000 tonnes and took about five hours to discharge and deliver to the site, with 60 wagon loads delivered each day.
The DoI said: ‘Highway Services maintains three large salt barns; at Bathane in the south, Ellerslie in the central valley and Glen Duff in the north. These have a total capacity of about 11,000 tonnes. These barns are used to store all the salt used to treat the island’s road network (gritters and salt bins) and to supply other public bodies.
‘Consumption of salt varies significantly year to year dependent on winter weather conditions, but generally a delivery of salt to replenish stocks is required every two to three years. This season’s delivery has brought our stocks back up to optimum levels.
‘Salt has to be periodically turned to ensure that it spreads effectively when deployed from the gritters. Anticipating that we would need a resupply this year, Ellerslie salt barn was re-stocked from Glen Duff (and by so doing, turning the salt stored there) leaving Glen Duff available to accept deliveries of new salt.’
