As part of a province wide awareness campaign, the BCGEU brought a handy check list and a long list of road information to Prince Rupert city council this week.
As the Podunk portal reported earlier last month, the provincial worker’s union is asking the public to judge for themselves if the state of the roads is up to the standards set by the Ministry of Transportation, or if the provinces many private contractors are falling behind on the job.
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From snowfall amounts required before plowing must commence, to a list of which tasks should be tackled first during a snow storm, the BCGEU awareness campaign is an informative bit of public relations, perhaps designed to show that public servants might have been more on top of the situation back in the days when the provincial government plowed its own roads without the use of private contractors.
.
.
From snowfall amounts required before plowing must commence, to a list of which tasks should be tackled first during a snow storm, the BCGEU awareness campaign is an informative bit of public relations, perhaps designed to show that public servants might have been more on top of the situation back in the days when the provincial government plowed its own roads without the use of private contractors.
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As part of their comprehensive public reltaions blitz, the BCGEU even posted a YouTube video to their website to give British Columbians an idea as to what to be looking for on the roads.
Over the last few years there have been a growing number of concerns over road conditions in the Northwest, most of them being registered from the Terrace area eastwards on the Snowbelt portions of Highways 16 and 37 to Kitimat.
City Council may want to review some of the material that was presented this week, for in town use. There no doubt will be many Rupertites that suggest that the city may not have made much progress on the list in their own backyard last month with January’s frequent snowy days.
The Daily news had details on the BCGEU presentation to council in Thursday’s paper.
Drivers asked to keep eye on state of roads
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Pages one and three
The B.C. Government and Service Employees Union (BCGEU) wants B.C. drivers to be their own judge when it comes to the state of highway maintenance.
The B.C. Government and Service Employees Union (BCGEU) wants B.C. drivers to be their own judge when it comes to the state of highway maintenance.
At Prince Rupert council on Monday, Dan Baker of the BCGEU and a highways worker based in Terrace, presented a checklist that drivers can take with them on the road in order to judge whether highways are being properly maintained.
"The BCGEU is aware of the concerns and frustrations a lot of the motoring public face for highway conditions," said Baker.
"The travelling public expects safe, maintained highways.
"It is also an economic issue. Commercial stakeholders also need properly maintain roads and highways."
Each year, private contractors receive more than $300 million from B.C. taxpayers to maintain the province's highways.
Properly maintained roads last longer, require fewer repairs, save taxpayers money and add to road safety, he said.
The checklist provides a framework for the motorist to judge the road conditions anywhere when they are traveling throughout the province, said Baker.
It addresses questions such as are potholes being fixed fast enough; is snow being cleared quickly; and is debris being removed from the road fast enough?
For example, it notes that plows should clear major highways when the snow is four centimeters or deeper, snow and slush should be removed from major highways within 48 hours and on less frequently traveled roads, snow should be removed within seven days.
Contractors should be sanding hills and corners before straight stretches of road and contractors should be applying sand and deicer within three hours when slippery conditions are reported to them.
The list also addresses non-seasonal concerns around drainage, curb island and barrier maintenance, garbage and graffiti, sign maintenance, vegetation control and road surface repairs.
The checklist is available today at the office of North Coast MLA Gary Coons.
In addition to presenting the checklist, Baker asked council to consider endorsing a draft resolution that calls on the Ministry of Transportation to enhance their monitoring and audits of work performance by highways contractors and release those findings semi-annually to key stakeholders.
The Ministry of Transportation signs 10 year contracts with its maintenance providers. It classifies each of its highways based on traffic type and frequency of use and provides standards for conditions that contractors must meet. Within the contract, there are financial performance incentives for contractors that meet the standards.
Two per cent of the overall contract value is available for outstanding contract performance.
Baker made it clear the BCGEU was not speaking against his employer or the ministry, but rather providing information to allow the public to make their own decisions as to the state of highways maintenance.
“What we’ve found in highway maintenance is that no one informs the public of what the standards are,” he said.
Council agreed.
“There is a lot of information in the presentation that I did not know about,” said Coun. Bedard.
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