Wiesbaden (dpa/lhe) - The Hessen Mobil road construction authority is preparing for the winter with tens of thousands of tons of road salt. The authorities in Wiesbaden announced that 90,000 tons of salt were stored across the country in 46 road maintenance depots. In the past year, around 62,500 tons of de-icing salt had been scattered on the network of federal, state and district roads managed by Hessen Mobil. A spokesman explained that the average for the past 20 years was around 81,000 tons consumed.
Hessen Mobil is responsible for around 15,200 kilometers of roads in the federal state. Around 1,000 winter service workers with around 390 vehicles work for the authority. If necessary, the winter service is on duty around the clock to clear the streets.
According to the authority, the current cost increases in many areas are not yet noticeable: "Hessen Mobil has concluded multi-year supply contracts for salt with suppliers from Germany, so that we can assume stable prices at the moment - even if repeat orders are necessary," explained the Speaker.
Large quantities of road salt are also available for the motorways. The West branch of Autobahn GmbH des Bundes, for example, stores around 52,000 tons of road salt. There are also around 3,000 tons of silo salt for brine production. The area of the branch includes, among other things, southern Hesse with the Rhine-Main area.
