Updates and background on the work we do to maintain and rehab BC bridges and highways during the spring, summer and fall.
How do you clear the roads when the amount of snowfall over 36 hours amounts to the height of the average Canadian adult? You get creative, and look to the ski hills. When 168 cm (5’6”) of snow fell in the Terrace-Kitimat area between February 5 and 7 (4pm-4am, 2015), local maintenance contractor Nechako Northcoast brought in heavy equipment from outside, such as graders, loaders, and three snowcats. Typically used on ski hills, these cool cats are designed to...
Rockfalls tend to happen more often in spring, when slopes above highways can be affected by changing temperatures and increased rainfall. The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure’s Rockwork Program uses a variety of techniques to keep rock and debris off highways. But rockfalls are a natural process and cannot always be prevented. In those cases, the ministry and its maintenance contractors spring into action to ensure the highway is cleared and safe for travellers. Reporting a Rockfall Maintenance Contractors...
What has three colours of flashing lights and travels up to 80 kilometres an hour on B.C. highways while simultaneously gathering more than 10,000 measurements per second? It’s ARAN – the Automatic Road Analyzer! And if you were in Northern B.C. this summer there’s a remote chance you may have spotted this unusual vehicle, logging about 6,500 kilometres of road. The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure hires this super specialized van (and the people who operate it and the...
Ever hear of a kineograph? We hadn’t until now, but we knew about the more common term for the same thing: a “flip book”. You’ve probably seen them before – a thick book filled with pictures that seems to come alive when you flip through the pages. It may seem like a primitive form of entertainment now, but back in the day, it was the equivalent of a home theater system, without the surround sound, of course. What do...
VSA is the maintenance contractor that looks after highways around Lytton and Merritt, including the Coquihalla. They’re always on the lookout for ways to improve how they do things, and they recently found a new way to keep the highways clean. The machine they’ve developed was made in partnership with Tanguay, a company from Quebec. It’s called the SA 150, and it’s basically a super sweeper, allowing VSA to sweep highways faster with less impact to traffic. Just how...
Parked along the highway, abandoned vehicles can be eerie, mysterious, even menacing…. You can’t help but wonder…what happened to the occupants? What is the story behind the vehicle left behind? Whenever the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure employees or contractors spot (or hear of) an unoccupied vehicle roadside, our first thought is safety. If the abandoned vehicle is in any part of a lane, or in the way of snow removal equipment, it’s a danger to traffic and will...
What Do You Want to Know More About? Are you looking for something on TranBC but can’t find it? Or have a question about what the ministry does and why we do it? Share your question with us and we’ll try to get you an answer. Who knows – your question could be our next blog! Thank you – we couldn’t do this without YOU.
The Vancouver Police Department, RCMP and CVSE helped kick start the Cone Zone roadside worker safety awareness campaign by setting up undercover enforcement operations at work zones around the province in May. The #1 violation in Vancouver? Mobile phones. Of 30 violations caught by police at 500 West Georgia Street and 700 Richards Street, 27 were for distracted driving involving mobile phones. At the Burrard Street Bridge, 44 offences were ticketed, mostly involving mobile phones and speeding. “Some motorists/drivers...
