Snow and ice are expected again on Tuesday night and then this Wednesday across a large area of the northeast, with 34 departments on orange alert tomorrow and “significant amounts” expected.
After last week’s chaos in Ile-de-France, how are the authorities organizing themselves in the face of this new bad weather? “Road managers are used to dealing with the arrival of ice in advance,” Lyonnel Bossier, director of roads for the Oise departmental council, told BFMTV.
Go outside to avoid freezing rain
First step in this department of Ile-de-France: preventively apply salt to the roads, while freezing rain is expected this afternoon. “Preventive salting is used to treat ice,” explains Lyonnel Bossier.
According to the MétéoConsult website, this preventive salting is effective down to -10°, but for a short period. Therefore, it is necessary to periodically re-salt. “The ideal is to carry out the first salting just after the peak of frost at night (that is, when temperatures become negative),” reads the specialized site.
There is no pre-treatment of the snow.
However, preventive salting is not effective against snow. “Snow requires the intervention of snowplows, so it is essential to be on the ground,” confesses Lyonnel Bossier.
“We cannot treat the snow in advance,” continues the road director of the Oise departmental council.
The idea is to prevent the snow from becoming compact, hard and slippery. Therefore, the idea is to be able to remove the snow as quickly and regularly as possible. “All our snow plows will be mobilized,” continues the road director of the Oise departmental council. We have provided road agents as reinforcement, we have almost doubled the number of agents mobilized. Alert all authorized farmers equipped with snow plows on their tractors. .
The Oise has 4,000 kilometers of roads, the main roads will be priority, says Lyonnel Bossier, who adds: “then we will move on to the secondary network.” In the department, 50 machines will be in operation and a hundred farmers could come as reinforcements.
Lyonnel Bossier, however, reiterates a message of caution: “If you are not equipped with snow tires, it is absolutely necessary to postpone your trips.”
Source: BFM TV
