Winter Driving concerns reviewed for Terrace based road contractor

With another season of Winter Driving conditions fast approaching, the contractor for road maintenance for the Terrace region is reviewing concerns expressed from last years travels along Highway 16.

Nechako Northcoast Construction came under some criticism last winter from the Skeena Queen Charlotte Regional District, with particular attention directed to the state of road maintenance on the eastern half of the Terrace to Prince Rupert stretch of Highway 16.

In August, Directors of the SQCRD expressed their thoughts (and those of some area residents) to a Ministry of Transportation official, highlighting the need for improved maintenance.

Highway maintenance not adequate, says regional district

To help improve communication between the road maintenance company and local officials, Nechako Northcoast intends to add regional government officials to the list of groups that they meet with prior to each winter season, seeking feedback on the plan for the upcoming winter.

An article in the Terrace Standard outlined some of the challenges that highway maintenance workers face with the varied conditions that Highway 16 can offer,  with the stretch between Terrace and Prince Rupert a particularly troublesome patch of geography of the North Coast,  that makes their work quite difficult when winter storms roar into the region .

And with winter driving conditions not too far off, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure has once again reminded motorists that Snow Tires (and chains in some instances) are a requirement on the majority of highways in Northern British Columbia for the winter driving season.

As well, they offer up a variety of Winter Driving Tips to help motorists navigate the Winter Driving Season, you can review those notes from the Ministry website.

You can watch for changes in the daily road conditions from the Drive BC website.

As well, we will highlight any severe road conditions on Northwest roads with our North Coast Alerts section at the top, right hand side of the blog.