sixty agents ready to fire

The drop in temperatures recorded in Deux-Sèvres between November 21 and 24, 2024 was a godsend for Vinci Autoroutes staff. “This is the first year that we have salted the roads this early in the department, but for us, it’s good training”justifies Adrien Dufau, deputy to the Vendée Deux-Sèvres district head, whose command post (CP) is located in Granzay-Gript, south of Niort.

From November 15 to March 15, in this sector which extends from Sainte-Hermine and Poitiers to Saint-Jean-d'Angély, sixty-two agents stand ready, day and night, to activate the plan of winter viability. With one objective: that users of the A83 and A10 motorways can travel whatever the weather.

“Seven days a week and 24 hours a day, we are on alert”reports Adrien Dufau. Although road snow removal operations are rare, in the Vendée Deux-Sèvres district, the bulk of the work concerns prevention. Spread across the 300 kilometers of the sector, 19 weather stations and 12 surveillance cameras allow the Granzay-Gript command post to monitor changes in temperatures in real time, and to coordinate, if necessary, interventions on the ground.

During the particularly mild winter of 2023, three to four days of salting and brine spreading were necessary to prevent any formation of ice on the roads. “The salting trucks follow four predetermined circuits, two of which leave from Niort, one on the north side, the other on the south side”specifies Yohann Finociety, among the three on-call officers on the Granzay-Gript site.

Beware of overtaking

Carried out at a speed of 50 km/h, each salting circuit requires approximately three hours, before early morning. “Once a car overtook me while I was salting, and it ended up two kilometers further across the road because of the ice, testifies Yohann Finociety. We need to remind people that when our flashing lights are on, it means that we are salting or clearing snow, and that it is therefore forbidden to overtake us.”. It's done now.