By Mark Squibb / June 16, 2023
Earlier this month, the provincial and federal governments announced a joint expenditure of $30 million to complete the Team Gushue Highway.
The highway, which currently ends abruptly at the Topsail Road and Dunns Road Intersection in Mount Pearl, will finally connect to the Pitts Memorial and Robert E. Howlett highways, although that won’t be at least until 2027.
While the move has been applauded by municipal leaders, some members of Mount Pearl council have taken exception to a comment allegedly made by St. John’s Mayor Danny Breen.
“I wanted to highlight here in public chambers that in a report on VOCM, Mayor (Danny) Breen with the City of St. John’s made a comment that ‘The capital city will agree to do the maintenance on this completed highway if Mount Pearl also agrees to do the same,’ and several have inquired and I said, ‘Well, that’s brand new to me,’” said Locke. “In the announcement, and in the discussions, it never came up that Mount Pearl was expected to commit to maintaining this provincial, regional road.”
Locke said he wanted to assure residents that council has not committed to maintaining the road, nor was the expectation to do so ever presented to him.
“I really have no idea where the comments from Mayor Breen originated, but I just wanted to speak here publicly because I did tell residents that I would speak to it in the public chamber,” said Locke.
Locke said that leaving the highway in an unfinished state (the last bit of construction was done in 2018) has been a detriment to the City of Mount Pearl.
“Since 2018, we have had an abundantly higher volume of traffic on Park Avenue and Smallwood Drive that wasn’t there until they connected the Team Gushue Highway and the offramp down there by Dodge City and Mount Pearl Square, so yes, it will benefit the city, but it will only rectify a traffic issue that was brought about by the incomplete condition of the Team Gushue Highway,” said Locke. “Had they completed that Team Gushue Highway at the time, as far as they’re proposing now, to the Robert E. Howlett, we would not have had to endure the high volume of traffic, the speeding, the noise, the premature deterioration of our asphalt on those roads — because they were never designed for that volume of traffic — and so I do acknowledge that the city of Mount Pearl will benefit from the completion of this highway, but so too will the Southern Shore, the Goulds, and the Southern Avalon.”
He went on to say residents of the Southern Shore are not expected to maintain the Robert E. Howlett Highway nor residents of Carbonear expected to maintain the Veterans Memorial Highway.
“Just because the Team Gushue Highway is adjacent doesn’t mean there’s an associated ownership,” agreed Mayor Dave Aker. “And the premier mentioned several times at that announcement bringing people in for government services, for provincial services. They’re being brought in on a provincial road. But frankly, if the City of St.John’s wants to operate a provincial road, that’s their purview at the end of the day. But I don’t see that this City has changed its position, nor would CBS, or Paradise, with regards to any of the other provincial roads in the region. So, the comment kind of came out of the blue and it was unannounced, and I wonder if a little bit more thought needs to go into it. But I do commend the Province for finishing the road, and fixing the Park Avenue, Smallwood Road problem that we have.”
Aker concluded he was looking forward to the Team Gushue cul-de-sac becoming the Team Gushue Highway.
Breen, meanwhile, said he believes his words were misunderstood.
“At the announcement I was asked by a reporter if St. Johns was going to maintain the road,” said Breen. “And I said, and he misquoted me a bit, but what I said to him was we would consider it, but we would only consider it if Mount Pearl is involved in it, because we wouldn’t maintain it ourselves, and clearly it’s a road that is very important to the City of Mount Pearl, so we wouldn’t do it ourselves, but if the Province wants us to consider it, we would consider it if Mount Pearl was involved. And that’s all I said.”
He allows that maintenance of the road has been a contentious issue over the years, but that no commitment has been made by St. John’s.
He added that St. John’s is actually in alignment with Mount Pearl in thinking that the Province should be responsible for maintaining the highway, but the capital would consider maintaining it so long as other municipalities, like Mount Pearl, also committed to maintaining it.
“If we were asked, we would consider it, but we wouldn’t do it just ourselves because it serves the whole region,” said Breen. “So, if we were asked to do it by the Province, we would expect that other municipalities would be asked to participate in that as well.”
