Dawson Road Maintenance will assume responsibility for highway maintenance in Service Area 25 (Bulkley Nass), which includes provincial roadways for Smithers, the Hazeltons, Stewart and highways 16 and 37 (North).

The highway maintenance contract comes into effect Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019, the day after the existing contract expires. The agreement has a standard term of 10 years, with an option for a five-year extension.  

Dawson Road Maintance is the current highway maintenance contractor for service areas 16 (South Cariboo), 17 (Central Cariboo) and 22 (North Peace).

The Ministry of Transportation and Infratructure’s maintenance contracts for all service areas require high standards and a more proactive approach when a severe weather event occurs. Some of the biggest improvements over the last contract include:

• increasing communication with the public about rapidly changing road conditions during severe weather events and other incidents affecting travel on B.C. roads;
• returning Class A highways to bare pavement within 24 hours of a winter weather event, at -9 C or wamer (the previous standard was 48 hours);
• increasing patrol frequency to 90 minutes on a Class A highway during a winter storm (the previous standard was four hours); and
• increasing the patrol frequency to four hours when a weather event is forecasted (the previous standard was 24 hours).

The 26 maintenance contracts in the province that were expiring in 2018-19 have now been awarded. The contract values for each service area will be published on the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure’s website in mid-October.

Quick Facts:

• Private contractors maintain nearly 47,000 kilometres of road and 2,800 bridges in some of the most challenging terrain in Canada.
• Crews apply 750,000 tonnes of winter abrasives and 100,000 tonnes of salt to over 1.2 million kilometres of highways annually throughout B.C.
• The value of these 28 highway maintenance agreements is approximately $400 million annually.

Learn More:

For more information on the ministry’s highway maintenance contracts, visit: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/transportation/transportation-infrastructure/contracting-to-transportation/highway-bridge-maintenance/highway-maintenance/contacts

For the most up-to-date highway travel information, visit @DriveBC on Twitter or: www.DriveBC.ca

For more information on the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, visit: http://tranbc.ca/