With a broad name like Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, there are bound to be questions. Like small-talk at a cocktail party, those 13 syllables beg the question: “So, what do you do?” Some of the work we do is probably pretty obvious, but some of it may surprise you. To help clarify our raison d’être, we thought we’d compile some of the ways we serve you. Our Way is the Highway When it comes to the ministry, the...
re-mem-brance (ri-mem-‘br-ens) noun. the act or process of remembering the state of being remembered Today (Nov. 21) is National Day of Remembrance for Road Crash Victims in Canada– a day set aside to remember those killed or seriously injured on Canadian roads. It’s also a time to consider the victims’ friends and families who are left struggling with the sudden loss of people they love. We choose not to use the word “accident” because these crashes are more often...
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...
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...
The hustle. The sweat. The pressure to be the best… Commercial vehicle inspectors put their safety sense to the test at the 2016 CVSE Inspectors’ Challenge in Victoria, BC, June 13-17, 2016. The annual competition places seven CVSE inspectors under intense scrutiny in timed events, each competitor striving to show he or she is the sharpest at detecting hazardous vehicles, loads and drivers. The inspectors competed in four main competitions: Truck and trailer inspection, including driver; Dangerous goods inspection,...
It’s the filling in the sandwich, the shiny buckle on the belt, the diamond pendant on the necklace… We’re talking about three kilometres of Highway 97, just south of Prince George that we’ll transform into four lanes from two lanes, and link with recently improved four-lane sections. The stretch starts just north of Stone Creek Bridge (about 25 kilometres south of Prince George) and connects at Williams Road, north of the CN Rail bridge. Like most centrepieces, the area...
BC Highway 5 from Hope to Merritt (also known as the Coquihalla or “the Coq”) is a busy transportation corridor through a high mountain pass, and because of this high elevation, the Coquihalla can experience periods of heavy snowfall. Don’t let that worry you though – VSA Highway Maintenance, our maintenance contractor for the route, has a plan. It’s called “the Coquihalla Snowshed Protocol” and it’s every bit as important as it sounds. What exactly is the protocol and...
APRIL 26, 2016 UPDATE: The new McKenzie interchange will be built as a partial cloverleaf reflecting the preferred option of 75% of those who participated in the public consultation, Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Todd Stone announced today. Here they are: three concepts for the future McKenzie Interchange on the Trans-Canada Highway. We’ve determined that all three concepts are technically doable and meet the project goals of reducing congestion, improving safety and increasing reliability. What do you think is the...
