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...
BC HighwayCams, dynamic message signs, weather stations, reversible lane control… Any idea what these things have in common? If you guessed they’re all Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), you’d be right! With the advancement in technologies, this field has grown and is getting a lot of attention these days (connected/automated vehicles, smart cities, and more). ITS also helps support some of our key priorities: mobility, safety, and the efficient transportation of our road users. What is ITS? It’s the application...
No – this isn’t Mr. Badger of Wind in the Willows fame, nor is it the viral “Crazy ___ Honey Badger” of YouTube fame… this is the American Badger, a somewhat reclusive member of the Canadian Endangered Species list and the only badger of its kind in Canada. Keeping travellers of all kinds moving safely along our highways is our number one priority and badgers are no exception to this rule. Our wildlife underpasses (and overpasses) are popular paths...
Simply put, a hydrotechnical engineer’s job is all just water under the bridge. British Columbia rivers are dynamic and powerful systems that move large amounts of water, sediment, woody debris and ice from our mountain tops all the way to the ocean. Along this journey, the waters encounter provincial highways and roads, and that’s where we come into the picture. We asked Hydrotechnical Engineer Dan Cossette about how he and his colleagues work to keep bridges, culverts and...
British Columbia history nerds rejoice! We’ve got a new Road Trip Time Machine video for you. In this episode, our flux capacitor (aka photolog) will take us back to 1966 for a cruise along BC Highway 7 between Burnaby and Maple Ridge. This route begins in the City of Vancouver as Broadway, changing its name to Highway 7 after crossing over Boundary Road in Burnaby. From there, it travels east through Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, Mission...
We spend a lot of our time working on ways to keep folks safe and sound while travelling BC Highways. Did you know that we also spend a great deal of time looking for ways to help fish, fowl and forest creatures find their way as well? That’s the job of our Environmental Management folks and our Environmental Enhancement Fund (EEF) helps them do that. Created in 2003 to help deliver a wide range of environmentally driven projects on...
We’ve introduced better chain-up regulations for commercial vehicles, which will provide more clarity for professional drivers this winter. That means safer roads, too. The changes come in the wake of one of our worst winters for highway closures. Unprepared commercial trucks caused 41 highway closures because they were either poorly equipped or totally unequipped with chains. In some cases, this was due to the driver’s inability to install the chains properly. Loss of traction in winter conditions leads to...
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...
