The issue is not what standard that the road will be set at. The issue is that the Prince George road maintenance crew just doesn’t do the work. Why would more money be paid to a crew that does not complete the work to the lower standard? The real issue is contract monitoring. All you have to do is drive between Vanderhoof and PG after a snowfall. The road is plowed from Bednesti west and not plowed or barely plowed from Bednesti east. The same south you have to get past Quesnel to find plowed highway. The solution was to pull the contract from the PG crew and get someone new. and fire the government employee dropping the ball with the contract supervision.

They already have started with the new classifications, freezing rain warning all over news stations. Guess what people you can not go 100km/hr!!!!! Slow down!

Handlebars, up to this information being revealed that our highways were level B, I would have agreed with some of your comments.

Now that the BC Government has decided to releasing us from being 2nd class citizens, and is willing to respect the lives of the people who drive the highways in the north. it will make a huge difference.

The management of the Maintenance Companies now have to meet the new standards set by the government.They will be closely monitored, mainly because the MoTH is getting a lot of heat from likely the Auditor General, thus the improved standards to northern roads is a requirement.

However, I do agree, YRB is very slow at doing there job. Definitely can tell where the maintenance contracts starts and end.

Handlebars makes an excellent point about the road maintenance supervision.

One thing I noticed this year is the road maintenance crews tend to run up the center of the highway a lot more than in the past. This tends to narrow the highway and force vehicles to compete for the center. Technically this gets the job done in half the time, but safety wise its not so good.

A good plowed highway is one that has the plow run up its own lane leaving a bit of a center median between plowed lanes. In a snow storm it makes it that much easier to determine where ones lane even is. This obviously takes more patrols and hopefully this is what the class A highway designation will mean.

What I would really like to see is a provincial hot shot crew. Maybe a hundred operators province wide that are like storm floaters that are integrated with the existing contractors to fill gaps when they arise. A grader operator is sick in one region then a floater crew is on standby, or a major storm from the jet stream is hitting one region then extra crews would enter the zone of the storm… with weather tracking and integrated human resources there would be no excuse for not meeting the expected road standards.

The key to having a hot shot crew is they could also be the provincial highways inspectors and mentors to help ensure the contractor crews are meeting the required standard and ensure best practices across all regions. We should not have silos of service standards like we currently have now…. silos of unaccountability would be put in check with provincial inspectors on the ground with a blade down.

The $2-3 million for the new highway classification could easily fund a provincial hot shot crew of public employees and IMO would be the way to bring the standard up to the new designation.

Prince George yrb do an excellent job already. Great job who ever is doing it.

Probably better then the Houston area crew

Having a hotshot crew is a really good idea Eagleone, our provincial government should be paying you for your taxpayer / public centric quality service ideas.

Ive been driving to and from Vanderhoof a couple of times a week this winter (more so than other years) and here is another observation just to stir the pot: PG side gets FAR more snow than the Vanderhoof side! I know everyone says PG side is worse and Vanderhoof does a great job but really, look at the weather. I have left PG with 6″ of snow on Peden hill and much past bednesti you will be lucky to have two inches. By the time you reach Vanderhoof its a skiff. Obviously thats not true for every storm but it happens quite often from my experience. Cluculz lake seems to be the “transition” area…

Whatever the reason, the Vanderhoof section is always better plowed than the PG side.

YRB Prince George, has always said that Hwy 16 west is not a priority. They only plow to mud river hill and turn around to start with. I drive from the hoof to PG everyday. I see the difference. If the snowfall is heavy in the whole area Vanderhoof has trouble keeping up too. They should be plowing in tandem then that gets the snow off the highway so traffic doesn’t spread around again. Maybe now that it is a class A we will be a priority now and more trucks to do the job properly.

We never had these issues when the MOTH looked after our hwy’s did we Terry. We were out there doing what was required when it was required, not afterward.

Posted by: X-it on January 22 2014 7:46 AM
Prince George yrb do an excellent job already. Great job who ever is doing it.
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Uhmmm, ya OK!

If YRB is not considering area past Mud River a priority, than why are they getting paid to keep it open and safe.

I agree with that comment of them running the plow trucks down the middle and we crowd the center line. Thus in a snow storm we have a set three wheel tracks.

I like the idea of a hotshot team roaming the province. The only thing with something like that is, it needs to be set up so that if the maintenance contractor has to pay for it, if they are not doing the job. If it is an extra-ordinary condition than the province pays for it.

A good year round infrastructure is the key to the secret to accessing and utilizing our resources to it potential in the north.

The upgrading to the Class A roads is a good thing. Nobody will squawk about the cost of it.

interceptor, I used to haul chips from out west, 3 return trips a day. The turnaround point between YRB PG and YRB Vanderhoof, (2 different companies) is at Bednesti. It has been an issue for years that there is a lack of winter maintenance between PG and Bednesti. Ask the truckers. Vanderhoof was out there prior to and during the snowfalls where PG showed up after the carnage. I have been at many winter crash scenes between PG and Bednesti over the years and there is always fresh sand and salt after the fact. I was third in line when the young fellow in the plumbing van died on the sand free hwy in Beaverly a number of years back. By the time traffic was allowed to proceed the road was covered in dirt. The same thing with the recent crash near Telechick Rd.

A hotshot crew? Ya right. Think deeply about that for a second.

Just when did Hwy 16 & 97 become class B highways. These are the two arterial routes upon which the entire province relies upon for transportation. What bureaucrat was responsible for this and how much did they get paid to risk our lives?

The maintenance of highways has always been poor in this area since it was privatized and whenever there is an accident most of the time it is due to road conditions. As a politician I would be ashamed to have my picture in the paper beside a heading about more money for highways,a measly two milion dollars.They all seem to say Gee I didn’t know the roads were that bad in your area.

Thanks Dragon

oldman1 – “whenever there is an accident most of the time it is due to road conditions.”

I would argue that most of the time it is due to people not driving to those road conditions.

Sadly this comes 14 years too late for our beautiful daughter that we lost to the lowest bidder when she died due to slush on the highway . To all of us that have lost our loved ones to the neglect of our roads this is only a reminder of the 604 that sucks the north dry till they need more from us . Not until business needs more from us do we get what should have saved so many . Our pain will never leave us till we die . 604 you have built yourselves up on the bones of our loved ones . I wish I could give you what you deserve .how many of us are there on our highways of tears ?

Another thing to remember is that most hwy’s maintenance contractors in BC are people that once made up the bulk of MOTH employees prior to privatization.

Intercepter you have to remember everyone out there is not a pro driver.There are many L and N drivers on the road also.If the roads are well maintained,sanded or salted on curves etc there will be less chance of having an accident.

what the hell. You mean we haven’t been getting the highest level of maintenance possible? Where did this “A” and “B” ranking come from?

Did the politicians just wake up and realize people have been dying on our highways in the winter?

We shouldn’t be saying thank you but instead demanding a public inquiry as to why the hell it took this long to start putting more money into maintenance on our northern highways!

Well said mitch2

Well said Mitch2 . When I see billions being spent and some mla or premier cuting a red ribbon . All I see is a ribbon of blood furnished by us . Their smiles make me want to puke . An inquiry would be nice but look what happened to the dead of the burns lake explotion . They have no shame .

People have been complaining for a number of years Mitch. People have been dying every year as well. I guess we have finally reached the death threshhold and are getting some action.

I am glad this has happened but not impressed it took place after the death toll was so high.

Totally agree Mitch2. I was shocked to hear that we weren’t already classified as Class A. But that explains alot of things. I used to drive between PG and FSJ twice a week from 2000 to 2010, and always thought the Vanderhoof side after Bednesti was the best maintained highway around PG. The PG to Quesnel is a death trap and always has been. North of PG is a “you’re on your own” road, and 16 east is for hot rod skiers anyway.

Now that the highway is reclassified all the idiot drivers who believe that 100kms/hr is too slow regardless of the weather will be out terrorizing everyone in their path.

I drove west from PG yesterday evening while it was raining. The highway was not slippery but the visibility was terrible especially when meeting 5 or 6 btrains in a row along with a tailgating, jacked up 4×4 with very bright lights shining in my mirrors. Often I was unable to see the side of the road and the center line. As well, on the west side of the hill west of Bednesti, an idiot decided he/she would attempt to pass. I was at the speed limit which apparently was too slow. A near collision was avoided just as another btrain came around the curve. I slowed down and hugged the shoulder to allow this fool to pass.

There needs to be someway to improve the visibility particularly at night. Too many vehicle have their lights set too high or refuse to dim them. As well, the truckers need to spread out so that one is not meeting a string of 5 or 6. Can you image the white out that follows each of these trains when it is snowing.

Will making the highway a class A make any difference? I doubt it. The road needs to be twinned.

Making highway 16 West a class A, may help to get some more maintenance done, however that is only part of the problem.

As mentioned above we need to have this Highway twinned That’s the real answer to the problems. Highway 16 West is the busiest Highway in North Central BC, and it has been overlooked for upgrading by respective Governments for years.

To make a public announcement that it is being upgraded to A from B, and try to make it sound like we are getting a **great** deal, is pure BS. This is a ploy to indicate we are getting something for our tax dollars, when in fact we are getting very little.

I’m sure there is billions in the Highways budget, so it would be interesting to see where the hell the money is being spent. I suspect more money will be spent in the Vernon, Salmon Arm, Sicamous area, plus the Valemount to Kamloops. We have already spent some $500 Million on the Sea to Sky Highway, and billions on Number 1 West in Vancouver, not to mention the billion dollar **new** Port Mann Bridge. We will probably get an announcement about another bridge across Okanogan lake.

We are being taken to the cleaners by politicians who could care less about this part of the Country except when there is an election pending.

Dragon states; “I guess we have finally reached the death threshold and are getting some action.”

It does make a person wonder what the cost of human life is to the powers that be. 21 lives = $2 million a year extra on highway maintenance.

Same goes with WorkSafeBC Stop Work Orders; wouldn’t want to issue too many of those, too much production down time cost, or bother for the employer!

handlebars on January 22 2014 6:17 AM
said in part, fire the government employee dropping the ball with the contract supervision.
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There has been no government supervisor overseeing the highways maintenance for a number of years now, the maintenance contractors are all self monitoring. It’s the fox guarding the hen house. Where is the accountability.
As for reclassifying Hwy 16 and 97 from B to A class the difference will be minimal for safer winter driving. What is really required are many more four lanes sections , concrete guard rails and concrete center dividers, Highway realignment wherever feasible and accountability by the contractors for both winter and summer maintenance