Highway maintenance in B.C. could soon get big overhaul

[flamingfingers]

Avalanches decide to cover only one side of a road? Who'd a thunk?

[christopher]

Avalanches decide to cover only one side of a road? Who'd a thunk?

I said NO to the avalanche just forget it

[flamingfingers]

^^OK.

[wisdom01]

Translated: NDP wants to/has to pay off their public sector union supporters, so expect a regression back to the costly disaster of the 1990s when maintenance was done in-house with no accountability for the quality of work done, at a lower efficiency and higher cost to taxpayers.

Haha, you are a funny dude ... did you live then? The highways were WAY better maintained back in those days, one could reliably expect the highway to be cleared and open ... not shut down because the poor contractor doesn't want to spend a buck to live up to the contact that they bid and signed. I for one would be happy to pay a couple of extra bucks to have the roads cleared properly but I suggest the offsetting removal of contractor scams would pay for the properly run government service without an increase in cost.

Don't get me wrong, there are places for contracting in government but when it comes to public safety the greed factor has to be kept out of it.

[Urban Cowboy]

Translated: NDP wants to/has to pay off their public sector union supporters, so expect a regression back to the costly disaster of the 1990s when maintenance was done in-house with no accountability for the quality of work done, at a lower efficiency and higher cost to taxpayers.

Haha, you are a funny dude ... did you live then? The highways were WAY better maintained back in those days, one could reliably expect the highway to be cleared and open ... not shut down because the poor contractor doesn't want to spend a buck to live up to the contact that they bid and signed. I for one would be happy to pay a couple of extra bucks to have the roads cleared properly but I suggest the offsetting removal of contractor scams would pay for the properly run government service without an increase in cost.

Don't get me wrong, there are places for contracting in government but when it comes to public safety the greed factor has to be kept out of it.

Well I for one did live back then, and recall very well how the roads were, long before the Coquihalla was completed, and the Hope Princeton route was the way to get to Vancouver from the Okanagan.

I remember how often I'd get stuck on the highway due to a wreck, how the road was so icy at times, that even the snow plow had a difficult time getting to the Manning Park summit. I recall descending from the summit with two wheels in the snow at the side of the road in order to get enough traction to make it down, and not end up off road as did so many others.

I recall countless times following a tractor trailer's tail lights, in the foggy icy decent around the Hope slide area, in weather so bad often times I'd lose sight of the rig in front of me.

The biggest difference between back then and now, is we didn't have the internet, where closures, wrecks, and such, are instant news, but nonetheless they still happened.

The other big difference, was that none of us were doing 120kph in the course of our trip, an expectation that some apparently deem normal, and within reason. I suspect some of this, is a byproduct of the proliferation of, four wheel drive and all wheel drive vehicles, that many view as making them invincible.

I think back when everyone drove a two wheel drive car, pickup, or van, people were a bit more in tune with winter driving limitations.