–
Roads, railways, and hydraulic infrastructures have guardian angels that are silent and almost invisible to the less observant. These are the 3,000 infrastructure maintenance and conservation professionals who work for the 34 companies throughout Spain grouped in the Association of infrastructure conservation and operation companies (ACEX), both state and regional and under provincial jurisdiction. His work has been intense since Thursday, when Filomena began to dye the Iberian Peninsula white. “It has been a strong storm because of its intensity, because it has snowed where it usually does not snow and in an important geographical area”, explains to Levante-EMV the general director of ACEX, Pablo Sáez, an engineer in the ‘chop’ of maintenance and conservation since 1992.
With the addition that “it has had a multiplier effect because it has snowed in Madrid and it seems that what happens in Madrid happens all over the world.” In addition to condemning mobility to collapse due to the radial design of all the infrastructures that necessarily pass through the center of the peninsula. Although Filomena has not been exceptional for professionals in the maintenance and conservation of infrastructures. “Last year we had two or three storms of this level,” says Pablo Sáez. That is why they are neither caught by surprise nor without means.
‘Weather forecasts now have very high reliability. We receive them seven days in advance, they keep an eye on you, three days and 24 hours, so the level of error is minimal “. And their work begins before the situation gets complicated with “preventive operations such as spreading flux on the road so that it does not freeze: a solution of salt in water, with a high level of saturation, which remains in the road and ensures that 100% of the product stays where it is needed “compared to the dry salt that was used years ago and that fell off the road, so the effectiveness of the treatment was not guaranteed.”
Protocolized treatment
A treatment that, obviously, “does not prevent snow, or that the snow remains on the road, what is intended to prevent the snow from freezing” and that is applied when the temperature drops below 2ºC, whether there is a forecast of snow or not . If heavy flake-like precipitation occurs, the operators then begin the “curative treatment: remove the snow and remove it to add salt again and prevent the remaining capita from freezing.”
These are measures that are included in the winter road protocol that provides in detail “where each machine goes, where it has to load the salt, load the blades or the routes that are prioritized according to the main network: first major roads, then links and secondary roads ». And driven by people who usually know the road by heart because “they carry out maintenance work the rest of the year.”
They also do not suffer from a lack of salt storage for the treatment of infrastructures since “100% of the average forecasts that the season will have is collected. For example, state highways already have on November 15 the 240,000 tons of salt that is expected to be spent in the six months of winter road use.
– .
