NDS maintenance workers have been preparing for weeks, checking machine equipment, repairing drainage systems, test driving the road gritters and restocking warehouse supplies. “The winter maintenance period involves a substantial number of logistic operations that need to run smoothly without interruptions from west to east,” said Rastislav Droppa, the Operations Section Director of NDS. “Winter puts not only the machinery, but also our colleagues to the test. And thanks to them, everything works well,” he added.
Winter maintenance services are being provided by 710 members of staff, including 107 dispatchers and around 600 maintenance workers. The dispatchers monitor weather conditions in real time and evaluate data from weather stations, dispatching mechanisms onto the roads even at night or during public holidays. Each of the 16 regional maintenance centres operates in shifts to ensure that the roads are passable 24/7.
NDS has approximately 300 mechanisms ready for the winter season, including road gritters, snow ploughs and snow cutters, as well as tractors and universal machines for carrying tools. All of the mechanisms have been fully checked and tested and are ready to be deployed when the first frosts arrive. Maintenance centres located in the northern regions of Slovakia (Liptovský Mikuláš, Mengusovce and Martin) expect more snowfall and challenging terrain, while those in western Slovakia focus mainly on rapid interventions in response to black ice and temperature fluctuations.
Well ahead of the winter season, NDS's warehouses were storing over 24 thousand tons of gritting material, mainly salt, but also eco-friendly mixtures used near protected water sources. The largest stock of material is stored in the maintenance centre in Martin, which manages almost 3,500 tons of material.
In addition to regional warehouses, NDS has a central warehouse located in Bešeňová with a capacity of 15 thousand tons. This warehouse is equipped with weighing machinery, tanks, and technology for a rapid distribution of gritting material. Thanks to this, the maintenance centres are well supplied with gritting material, even during extremely harsh winter conditions.
Winter maintenance in Slovakia is challenging, because the motorways run from the lowlands up to the mountain passes. The northern regions experience frequent snowfall and snowdrifts, while the lowlands have to deal with black ice and wind gusts. Therefore, the motorway maintenance workers use more than 65 kilometres of snow fences and barriers to protect the riskiest motorway sections against snowdrifts.
The winter maintenance period starts officially on November 1 and runs until the end of March. However, everything is ready now: the machinery, warehouses and the maintenance crews that will be deployed in case of need. The first interventions took place at the beginning of October, when preventive action was required on sections of the D1 motorway near Važec, where around 3 km of bridge infrastructure was gritted with approximately 1 ton of salt.
“When temperatures drop below zero or it snows, everyone knows what to do. That is the power of our teamwork – we can rely on each other and keep the roads safe, regardless of the weather conditions,” Rastislav Droppa concluded.