Updates and behind the scenes information around our environmental initiatives, projects and programs, including wildlife mitigation, biking, Adopt-a-Highway and more.
Question: How does a moose take a selfie? Answer: By triggering one of our wildlife monitoring cams, of course! Part of our work on BC highways is to help prevent animals and drivers from crossing paths and monitoring our wildlife crossings with motion activated cams is just one of the ways we do this. We use these images to get a better understanding of how animals are using our wildlife crossing and how they interact with each other at...
Workers discovered about 200 snakes settling in for winter, in a den of shale layers. The environmental monitor for the project identified two types – the Common Garter Snake and the Western Terrestrial (Wandering) Garter Snake. Both are common in BC, but the size of the nest was unusual for this part of the province. The snakes were in harm’s way and a solution needed to be found.
Celebrate two birthdays on the Alaska Highway this year, as the route turns 75 years old and Canada marks its 150th year. There are special celebratory events to recognize the route's storied past and loads of natural wonders along the way.
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.
In Part 1 of our interview series, we introduced you to a traffic and safety engineer, an electrical engineer, and a highway design engineer. It’s time to round out our engineering team by getting to know what it’s like to work up high, down low, and where the wild things are. That’s right, today we talk to those who work with bridges, earth materials and wildlife. So, without further ado… Zach Staples, Structural Engineer Explain what you do,...
In Canada, we celebrate National Engineering and Geoscience Month in March, highlighting the importance of engineering as a career and its impact on our daily lives. Engineering is such a HUGE part of what we do at the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure. From wildlife overpasses to Port Mann cable collars to rip rap to speed limits, it’s all covered with an engineering expertise. To showcase some of the work we do, we collected some of our most popular...
We set up cameras at wildlife overpasses and underpasses to monitor how mammals and amphibians use them to safely cross highways. If we can watch their behaviour, we can see what’s working and what can be improved upon. So we get excited when we capture evidence of wildlife not only understanding how to navigate the safe passageways, but also teaching their young how to use them. After all, the ministry’s wildlife underpasses and overpasses are alien environments for most...
What the heck do ospreys and the BC Ministry of Transportation have in common? Would you believe the W.R. Bennett Bridge? You see, we aren’t just responsible for highways and the travellers who use them; we’re also responsible for wildlife living alongside BC highways and in recent years a family of ospreys have decided to call this bridge home. Known for their dramatic dives into water to catch live fish, ospreys construct their nests on top of dead trees,...
