Thousands of tonnes of salt arrives for winter roads

Shetland Islands Council has taken delivery of over 6,000 tonnes of rock salt at Scalloway Harbour as part of its preparations for winter road treatment.

The cargo vessel Aasli arrived from Northern Ireland at Scalloway on Friday morning with a cargo of 6,125 tonnes of rock salt. During the following two days the cargo was offloaded from the hold of the vessel to the quayside into waiting trucks, which shuttled the load from the harbour to the nearby Scord quarry.

The stockpile will be used as the principal supply for rock salt for treating roads using the council’s fleet of gritters in the coming months. Smaller stocks of salt will also be supplied to depots in other parts of Shetland, to provide a local source of rock salt for gritters.

SIC roads service executive manager Dave Coupe said the delivery was one of the largest quantities of cargo taken ashore at Scalloway.

He said: “The proximity of Scalloway Harbour to the Scord quarry is an advantage to help offload and store this bulk quantity of rock salt, which is enough to see us through an average Shetland winter, although we will take in more stocks if necessary.

“This stockpile of salt is a key part of our winter preparations, along with our gritters and crews around the isles to call on when necessary. I’d urge drivers to take their own steps to prepare for winter, especially by fitting winter or all-weather tyres on their vehicle if they can.”