Offaly County Council reduce carbon footprint with Hydro Treated Vegetable Oil powered vehicles

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Offaly County Council recently launched two New Velocity Patching Units, which will be deployed across the road network county-wide. The addition of these vehicles to the Council’s Road Maintenance fleet introduces a modern, comprehensive, and sustainable approach to road maintenance.

This new approach will decrease the carbon footprint associated with this work and the carbon savings are greatly enhanced by the fact that these two vehicles will operate on Hydro Treated Vegetable Oil (HVO). Moreover, HVO provides an immediate 90% reduction on the operating carbon footprint of the vehicle when compared with traditional road diesel.

Chief Executive of Offaly County Council, Anna Marie Delaney, stated: “The introduction of this new modern approach together with the migration of specific vehicles within our Corporate Fleet to HVO further illustrates Offaly County Council’s leadership role in migrating towards lower carbon work practices. These new vehicles and the imminent arrival of our new fleet of five electric vehicles underpin our commitment to a lower carbon county”.

Chief Executive Anna Marie Delaney, (outgoing) Leas Cathaoirleach Cllr Tony McCormack, Director of Services Tom Shanahan with Municipal District & Machinery Yard Staff accompanied by Barry Lennon Senior Engineer, OCC at the recent launch of two New Velocity Patching Units which run on Hydro Treated Vegetable Oil and will assist the Council as they reduce their carbon footprint.

Director of Services Tom Shanahan further advised that “Our continuous advancement towards modernising our works programme delivery combined with our commitment to lower our carbon footprint is greatly benefited by the arrival of these two new vehicles. These machines also provide a much safer work environment for our operatives. I wish to acknowledge our suppliers, Archway Roadmaster, on the timely delivery of these vehicles and the additional technical support provided in ensuring we maximise the carbon benefits from this new process for Offaly.”

In his last official engagement as Leas Cathaoirleach of Offaly County Council, Cllr Tony McCormack stated: "I have great pleasure in launching these vehicles into the Council’s fleet, which will be operated by one person and do a faster and better job than previous methods. The Leitrim based company that make them, Archway Roadmaster, is a very successful Irish business exporting to Europe, UK and the USA."

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