B.C. Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Todd Stone met with the Revelstoke mayor and a councillor today to discuss a long list of issues with the Trans-Canada Highway around Revelstoke.
A recent example is the day-long series of incidents that snarled the highway on Sunday. (See here and here.)
Mayor Mark McKee brought a number of recommendations in writing to a luncheon with transportation minister Stone, including building a tunnel at Three Valley Gap to deal with future avalanches and mud slides.
Mayor McKee said he was extremely pleased with the minister’s response to the document.
“We all want the same thing, less closures and safer travel. Ensuring the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is on the same page will be crucial to successfully finding solutions,” he said.
The document (embedded at the end of this story) is based on discussions with the public and emergency services.
The city document expresses the idea that more road accidents could be avoided: “We are not sure that Ministry staff has adequate resources to inspect the conditions of the highway during severe winter weather.
“We would like to see an improved level of maintenance on the stretch of the Trans-Canada between Field and Salmon Arm,” it states.
Other recommended upgrades to the highway in the short-term include some central wire barriers, no-post barriers, extended shoulders, more overtaking lanes and more rest areas to improve driving conditions and make the road safer.
The report also highlighted commercial trucks as an issue on the highway and requested “reduced speed limits for trucks along sections of the highway” and specific training for truck drivers to deal with our unique weather conditions.
Currently fatal accidents close the highway near Revelstoke for a minimum of about seven hours. When the inevitable future incident occurs, the council wants to be more prepared and has requested a traffic analyst investigator be stationed in Revelstoke and faster approvals to remove debris from the highway.
Mayor McKee will head to Victoria later this month to meet again with minister Stone. While there he’s also scheduled to meet with the Minister for Energy and Mines, Bill Bennett, and the Minister for Justice, Suzanne Anton, to discuss what the likelihood is of implementing these recommendations.
Here is the original document forwarded to local media outlets by the City of Revelstoke on Feb. 2.
City of Revelstoke Highway Concerns Jan. Feb. 2, 2015 by Revelstoke Mountaineer
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