The municipal Department of Public Works in Hawkesbury will be making a long-anticipated move between Christmas and New Year’s Day. The new municipal garage on Spence Avenue is complete and on Tuesday, December 9, town council and municipal staff toured the new facility.
Construction of the new garage took place during the past year. The 17,000 square foot building containing 9,000 square feet of actual garage space will replace the 60-year-old facility on Main Street East, which is too small and contains numerous workplace safety hazards.
According to Director of Public Works Jonathan Wilson, the new garage has eight doors for four bays which allow trucks and other equipment to be parked inside and pass through without reversing. There are also two separate garage bays for vehicle and equipment repair. The garage also contains a large, industrial air compressor, an industrial pressure washer, and a three-ton gantry hoist to lift vehicles and equipment.
A detached structure allows for storage of road salt, salt/sand mix, and cold patch asphalt to be stored out of the elements. Not all of those materials could be stored under a roof at the old facility.
“I’m so happy for my team, they have a nice place to work in a safe environment,” Wilson said.
Wilson explained that the move of equipment and personnel from the old site to the new one will largely take place between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve. On average, 15 people are working in the municipal garage, including Wilson. The old garage will be torn down, and the site will be remediated. Whatever further development occurs at the site will be up to council.
Challenges at the old garage included low overhead doors and roof clearances that prevented equipment from being stored inside the building. There was also insufficient space for equipment.
Councillor Jeanne Charlebois described the old location as “an accident waiting to happen.”
The new Hawkesbury Municipal Garage cost $13.3 million to build and was $500,000 over the originally estimated budget of $12.7 million. The new garage is expected to meet the town’s public works maintenance needs for the next 70 to 100 years.
Photos: James Morgan
