Neu-Isenburg (dpa/lhe) – Hessian road maintenance departments see themselves well prepared for a winter operation. In the salt marshes and silos there are around 90,000 tons of salt for the milling service, the Hessian state authority announced on Thursday at the start of the meteorological winter. The sheds and silos of the 46 road maintenance depots are filled to the brim. From the beginning of October, around 1,000 employees with around 390 vehicles will be on duty at the winter service authority. They are responsible for keeping more than 15,000 kilometers of federal, state and district roads free of ice and snow. The German weather service has forecast light snowfall for the next few days.
On a snowy road, the braking distance at a speed of 50 kilometers per hour is about 70 meters, Transport Minister Tarek Al-Wazir (Greens) said during a visit to Offenbach’s road maintenance department in Neu-Isenburg ( district of Offenbach). On the road sprinkled with salt it shortens to 15 meters. And the sooner you spread out, the less salt you need. Hessen mobil also takes over the winter service for the cycle paths on the roads and sometimes even in the municipalities.
“We have set priorities for the dissemination and clearing operations,” said the chairman of the state authority, Heiko Durth. Routes with high traffic loads or black spots would be tackled first. Parking lots are of secondary importance. The head of Hessenmobil’s operations and traffic department, Rupert Pfeiffer, warned that even good winter service would not create summer conditions on the roads.
