Keeping roads open in snow costs 20 mln liras

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Turkey’s highway authority and municipalities across the country are struggling to keep roads open during a winter of heavy snowfall and extremely cold weather. AA photo

Turkey’s Highway Authority has spent 20 million Turkish Liras to keep roads open in heavy winter conditions and is willing to spend more if the current weather conditions continue.

In order to keep the roads open during the 2011 to 2012 winter, the Highway Authority has used 135,362 tons of salt, which has been the most expensive expenditure item, accounting for roughly 11.5 million liras of the total 20 million liras. The figure does not include the expenditure made by the municipalities for the same reason.

Meanwhile, the Highway Authority has ensured that 54,652 km of highway are continually open and 7,619 km are partly open and is trying to keep 65,526 highway networks open.

The Highway Authority has 434 centers to deal with snow-related highway issues, employs 4,568 employees to keep the roads open and has 4,792 pieces of equipment to clear the snow.