The transportation minister says the provincial snow clearing fleet is ready to go as the first major storm of the season bears down on the island.

A couple of weeks ago Barry Petten announced that government was moving ahead with plans to expand 24-hour snow clearing, including the hiring of numerous positions to create an overnight shift to keep the service going.

Petten says the overnight aspect won’t be much of a factor with this system as the bulk of it will occur throughout the day, but there are overtime mechanisms in place should it be needed.

Overall, he says their crews prepared. He says all of their crew, which is about 450 people, have been called back and all of their equipment is up and running. “Right now we are ready for winter,” says Petten.

The latest road conditions can be found on NL511, while the latest tracking of plows can be found here.