Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP) has strengthened the snowplow fleet in Serra da Estrela with the acquisition of three new vehicles for the Piornos Snow-Clearing Center, in the municipality of Covilhã.
“These three snowplows represent a total investment of around 750 thousand euros, framed within the fleet renewal process that IP has been developing in recent years,” the company said in a press release sent to the Lusa agency.
With this integration, the Serra da Estrela Snow-Clearing Center (CLN) fleet now comprises nine snowplows and three rotary snow-clearing machines, which guarantees “high levels of availability and operational readiness in interventions for cleaning and removing obstructions on roads, with the aim of ensuring traffic flow and road safety during the winter.”
The CLN dos Piornos, in the municipality of Covilhã, district of Castelo Branco, is located at an altitude of 1,650 metres, near National Road EN 339, and operates in winter 24 hours a day, seven days a week with “human resources and equipment appropriate to the Serra da Estrela’s specific conditions.”
IP recalls that the CLN operates on a mountain road network “only 100 kilometres from the Atlantic, without any mountain barrier to shield it from cyclonic and humid winds.”
These characteristics generate snow “very dense and with a high degree of humidity and, therefore, more difficult to remove.”
“The CLN, in coordination with the various entities, responds to the demands of the harsh winters felt in the central massif, guaranteeing the safety of road users and all the tourists who regularly travel there,” the company says.
The Snow-Clearing Center’s mission is the preventive application of rock salt on roads where ice formation is expected, as well as the continuous operation of snowplows to keep access routes to Serra da Estrela clear
It also falls to its professionals to provide “assistance to motorists who may be stranded by a sudden and strong change in travel conditions,” according to IP.
