It was a tough first test, but Qualicum Beach public works director Al Cameron couldn’t be happier about how the cleanup went after Wednesday’s big snowfall.
“It went good,” he said. “It was busy, because we had a pretty intense snowfall for a while, but the equipment worked well.”
New to the street-clearing fleet this year, he noted, is a new gravel truck, equipped with both a front plow and belly plow. Combined with two backhoes and a Versatile tractor, this proved sufficient to deal with the snowfall.
Although the snowfall was significant, it was also light, meaning the town didn’t have to use the grader. As well, he said, the snow wasn’t deep enough to require dump trucks to transport it out of the uptown core.
Cameron noted the Qualicum Beach airport was closed for a few hours during the storm, but the runway was cleared and open by around 5:30 p.m.