Updates and background on the work we do to maintain and rehab BC bridges and highways during the spring, summer and fall.
A strange thing happens when you’re travelling BC’s highways and you head through Rogers Pass, drive a section of Highway 93, cruise alongside Long Beach near Tofino, or travel Highway 97, 133 kilometres north of Dawson Creek. You see, the ground under your tires changes… You may think that’s provincially owned and operated road beneath you…but it’s not. These stretches of road are owned and operated by the federal government’s Parks Canada Agency, which has a long involvement with the...
Everybody loves spring. I mean, what’s not to like about balmy afternoons and BC in bloom? But as wonderful as spring can be, it also has a wild side (called freshet), as rapidly melting snowpack can oversaturate the ground supporting and surrounding roads, causing washouts. Washout damage often appears devastating – just look at the washout that closed Highway 33 south of Kelowna in April 2018 (above). It looked like it could take weeks to make it safe for...
It’s been a long winter, and the white stuff is still on the ground in some parts of the province. But take heart! Spring is finally here, and so comes a little “housekeeping” to keep things in order. What do you include in your spring cleaning checklist? Windows? Closets? Garage? Behind the bed? Under the stove? Well, we also have a list of to-do’s, but it looks a little different than yours. Here are a few things on our...
It’s that time of year again. The sun is shining, the birds are singing and the potholes are starting to show. What is it about this season that makes potholes so common, and how do we deal with the problem of perennial pothole patching? Let’s start from the ground up to get you the answers. How Potholes Form Our roads are built in layers – a base of earth and gravel, topped with asphalt – an excellent material for...
Every picture tells a story, and at the foundation of every bridge there is a saga. Our Flickr collection of photos and videos tells many stories – there are albums about bridge and highway projects, awards, educational events and community projects. We went through our albums and picked out some of the best bridge photos to share with you for National Engineering and Geoscience Month. Click on each heading below, and you’ll be transported to a Flickr album, for...
Able to record 400 measurements per second into an internal computer and function wirelessly, a state of the art retroreflectometer is our newest tool for testing line paint performance.
They’re out there… Day and night, on highways (and certain side roads) across the province. Who are they and what are they doing? They’re our Road Area Managers and they pretty much do it all. BC is a BIG province, connected by a vast system of highways and side roads, and it’s our job to make sure those roads that belong to us are running smoothly and safely. To do that, we need to break down our province into...
This spring, we’ll start using this environmentally friendly water-based paint that allows for thicker (and thus longer-lasting) application, on key highways around BC. In addition to delivering durability, the formulation will be combined with newly designed-for-BC glass beads, which improve light reflection to boost the paint’s visibility.
We take the safety of the travelling public very seriously and so do our maintenance contractors. Have you ever wondered what exactly we expect from them and how they meet our expectations? We spoke with Joe Wrobel, president of JPW Road and Bridge Ltd, to get the scoop on the many ways they work to keep you moving safely through the Sicamous and Salmon Arm area. TranBC: Could you tell us – what does a day in the life...
We’ve heard from a few folks recently asking how they can travel the Coquihalla safely during the winter. Apart from our usual recommendations for proper tires, checking DriveBC, keeping a full tank of gas and driving to conditions, we thought we could help travellers make better decisions around their travel by identifying some of the winter conditions found on the Coquihalla and explaining how they might impact travel. So, we asked our Weather Services Specialist, Simon Walker (who worked...
