NEWS RELEASE – February 19, 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Town of Happy Valley-Goose Bay Snow Clearing Update
The 11th Council of the Town of Happy Valley-Goose Bay met yesterday with management to review ongoing snow clearing efforts. Council is aware of the community’s concerns regarding this issue and daily updates will be provided on the progress.
The main priority of the Department of Public Works is to get all the roads widened first. In order to do so, crews will be working from 8:00 am to midnight, seven days a week. All of the Town’s available equipment is working on this task, as there are currently two snow blowers, two graders and one loader working on snow clearing efforts in different areas of the municipality.
Widening of the roads will improve intersections and enable vehicles and pedestrians to use the roads safely. It will be the decision of the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District as to when school bussing will resume. The Town is in daily contact with them to provide updates. Currently, approximately 30% of the Valley area has been widened, 75% of the area from Valley View towards MacDonald, and Spruce Park started to be widened yesterday.
Once widening has been completed, scraping and smoothing of the roads can commence immediately. It is anticipated that it will take up to two weeks to get the roads back to the condition they are normally in for this time of year. The Town appreciates the continued patience of the community while this work is being completed, and another review and assessment of progress will be done next week.
It should also be noted that the widening of the roads will also assist in clearing the buildup of snow in front of fire hydrants. In the meantime, the public should be aware these risk are mitigated as the Town fire truck has capacity to hold 1300 gallons of water. As well, heavy equipment is available to assist if required in the event of an emergency.
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