Timely and behind the scenes information around incident response and events impacting travel.
We’ve been focusing a lot lately on preparing for winter driving, and an important part of that is making sure you and your car are equipped in case of an emergency. There are many lists out there with recommendations on what you can pack (see below for a few resources to get some good ideas), but we thought we’d go one better and pop our trunk and share a few of the items we like to carry around when...
A concern, a problem, a beef, an issue… There are lots of words to express that something is unsatisfactory or unsettling to you. And at the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, there are several ways you can tell us about something that you think is just not right on provincial roads. Your information helps us ensure our roads are safe for everyone. Report a road problem to the contractor – Our maintenance contractors work hard to keep the roads...
British Columbia is located within the Pacific Ring of Fire, which is an area around the Pacific Ocean that experiences a high number of earthquakes. As much as we’d like to, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure can’t stop a major earthquake from happening, but we can prepare to reduce its impact on motorists by arming our structures with early warning sensors. Have you ever heard of a primary wave? No, it’s not coveted by surfers in Tofino. The...
Spring Flowers, or is it Showers? Well, depending on where you live, spring showers don’t bring flowers, they bring freshet (rapid snowpack melt and overwhelmed stream channels) and sometimes flooding. Since rising water can also impact the flow of traffic, we often have a role in flood management by managing and maintaining the provincial highway system. Whatever the water level, we have people on the job to get you where you need to go. The ministry activates flood...
It’s Emergency Preparedness Week (first full of May) and we asked our friends at Emergency Info BC to share some helpful tips with you about driving during a flood emergency. Here’s what they had to say: If you’re Flood Smart you also drive smart – or you don’t drive at all. During a flooding situation, road closures can take place across B.C. and driving your vehicle can become increasingly hazardous. DriveBC’s safety partner, Emergency Management BC, wants to remind...
Q. What train can travel 70 possible routes over a glacier, from 2,500 metre-high mountain tops down to near sea level, in about 20 seconds? A. An “avalanche train” in Bear Pass. An avalanche train is the sudden release of a large mass of snow or ice. Triggered by natural or human forces, it collects even more snow, ice and debris with it, as it thunders downward. In Bear Pass, a 65-kilometre stretch of Highway 37A, between Meziadin Junction...
We’ve had a lot of interest in our avalanche program lately, so we thought we’d give you an inside look at what goes on there. Meet Avalanche Tech Robb Andersen. Robb’s been working in avalanche safety since 1994, and he’s been with the ministry since 2004, working the snowy slopes in different areas throughout the province. He was in Stewart working Bear Pass when they had their biggest winter in 30 years, and he’s also spent a lot of...
How We Trigger Avalanches to Make Our Roads Safer for Travellers The snow falls thick and fast, and the mountain slopes become more and more unstable. Is it enough to set off an avalanche? Luckily, if you’re driving the mountain passes in B.C., you don’t really have to worry about it, because our avalanche and weather folks are on the job 24-hours a day to keep you safe on your travels. Apart from constantly monitoring the snow conditions, an...
Up for a quick quiz? Do you know what this yellow sign means?Many people who see these signs on Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland believe they indicate evacuation routes during an emergency situation but this is NOT TRUE. The Disaster Response Route sign actually identifies roads that have been designated for the sole purpose of moving emergency supplies, equipment and personnel during an emergency. They’re not the way to go when you want to get the heck...
Our Avalanche and Weather Program team are on the job 24-hours a day to keep you and our roads safe. How? The best way is to show you. Check out this video and see first hand how we trigger avalanches and make our roads safer for B.C. travellers. For more info, visit our Avalanche and Weather Program site and for the latest updates, head to our Avalanche Advisory page.
