Drôme: two municipalities in Vercors are equipped with new snow plow trucks before winter

The salt spreaders and other snow removal equipment are getting ready to leave the garage. The winter service plan for the Drôme department will be activated from mid-November and will continue until the end of April. It was presented on Tuesday November 5 by the Drôme Departmental Council in La Chapelle en Vercors (Drôme). This year, the municipalities of La Chapelle and Saint-Martin-en-Vercors are each equipped with an additional snow removal truck.

During this entire period, 350 agents could be mobilized from 4 a.m. to make the 4,200 kilometers of roads in the Drôme department passable.

In the Vercors, snow removal operations are taken seriously. With many passes, road officials are preparing. This year, the municipalities of Saint-Martin-en-Vercors and La-Chapelle-en-Vercors are equipped with new snow plows.

And new vehicle that was expected by the mayor of La Chapelle-en-Vercors Jean-Michel Tarin: “at the start of the mandate we had machines that were more than 50 years old, we could no longer guarantee snow removal. The idea of ​​not being able to be sure that firefighters could access houses in the town at any time was very distressing.” It now joins the 90 vehicles that can be mobilized in the department. A truck which has a cost, 400,000 euros excluding tax. The municipality received 60% assistance from the Department for this investment.

New essential means for municipalities while the intensity of weather episodes remains difficult to predict, explains Marie-Pierre Mouton, president of the Drôme Departmental Council: “rain-snow phenomena can happen suddenly, we must be ready in all circumstances. Last year we even had snow in May.”

Snow removal is essential to avoid road accidents. Since the beginning of the year, 36 people died on the roads of Drôme.