Be Ministry of Transportation and Highways Road ~Runner Newsletter
Volume 35. Issue 1 Winter 1998 Great ideas are @ Worl{
undreds of ideas elicited process of implementatio n and 23 are day-to-day jobs in the ministry: she from staff are helping the within the ministry's capability to do says. H Min istry of Transpo rtation now Another 47 are being co nsidered Oft en a so lutio n is simp licity itself , as in and Highways improve bot h fo r implementation in a year o r two, one suggestion for sta ff to turn of f their its ope rational ef ficiency and whi le 77 are und er review and awaiting computer mon itor s at night . its balance sheet. approval. Information Systems Branch Director "It's been an impressive showing: says Carr says 34 suggesti ons for revenue or Floyd Mailh ot says BCBC would save Ray Mau of the Corporate Improvement cost-savings are also seeking approval. abou t 570,000 a year if everyone aid and Accountability Branch whi ch is and another eight are ready for that. An accumulation of small savings reviewing the multitude of suggestio ns. executive o r Treasur y Board approval. can really make a di tference. Another "And it demonstrates the power of suggestio n recommended staff not take Min istry Librarian Del Rosario, employee participation." their phon e number with them when seco nded to work wit h Carr , says it's th ey mo ve to a new work statio n. Every CIAB director Wayne Carr says, in all. im po rtant for sta ff to realize their input time a phon e line is moved or a number almost one in three MoTH staf f took up and participatio n are valued and changed it costs the min istry 5 125 an the challe nge issued in the wake of welcome. "The best and most realistic restructuring for ideas on how th e ideas come from the peopl e who do the Continued on page 5 ministry can save money or incre ase its revenues. More than \,000 ideas were submi tted, NelN Minister appointed and after removing those that were duplicates or impractical. 813 were left he new Minister of Transportation He is the fou nde r of a group that for review. Of these, 35 per cent are in Tand Highways, Ho n. Harry S. Lali, is established a Chair o f Punj abi and Sikh place or ready to go and ano the r 3\ per a 41-year-o ld for mer emp loyment Studies at UBC. cent are being wor ked on . counsello r and sawmi ll wor ker who has t ali was an employment cou nsellor for represent ed the constituency of Yale For ty-seven suggestions have been the federally-sponsored Merritt l.illooet in the prov incial legislature imp lemented to date, 28 are in the Outreach Program fro m 1986 unti l his since 1991 . He takes over from Hon election to the Legislative Assembly. He Loi s Boone, who has been placed in also worked for MOSAIC in Vancouve r, charge of the Ministry of Children and and spent 1\ summers wor king in the Fam ili es. Contents sawmill industry as well as three years Message from Minister Lali 2 Prior to his app o intment to the Cabin et , as a retail business person . Lali was Parliament ary Secretary to the New Parliamentary Secretary 2 He served two years on the Merritt City Mi nister o f Forests for almost two years. Life of an Area Manager 3 Coun cil , and has been involved in Born in Jullundur, Punjab, Lali came to various communit y activities through Snow Business 4 Canada at a fairl y early age. He memb ership in the Lions Club, Merr it t Peace River Challenges 6 attended the Univ ersity o f Victo ria and Recreation Commissio n and the Merritt Dan Doyle Regards Change 7 the Unive rsity o f British Columbia, Aquatic Facilities Com mi t tee. obta ining a Bachelor of Arts degree in Nyland Head s Region 7 He and his wife Rani have two children, History and South Asian Studi es. Anscomb hits Big Sc ree n 8 aged 5 and 6. Road Runner Winter 1998 Message from Minister Lali Buettner takes on China assignment am both honored and pleased to take o n the role of etired MoTH br idge technician Roy IMin ister of Transportation and Highways. 1recogn ize RBuettner has traded the co mforts of the important role our roads play in sustaining our his Victoria hom e for an adve nture in communities, providing jobs to British Columbians and central China . helping people in their daily lives. His addre ss for the next 30 months is a Being from Merritt, I drive ou r highways all the time and job site in Henan Province where he's see the challenges we face in building and maintain ing our helping the Chinese build a freeway near roads under difficult geog raphy and weather conditio ns. the ancient capital o f Luoyang.
It is your dedication to the highways system that helps make Buettner, who retired last March after 32 Hon. Harry S. Lali all this possible. I congratulate you on your past effor ts and years with the mini stry, was asked by hope to enhance an already hard-working and effective team SNC-Lavalin o f Montreal to take on the contract , which involves advising on the construct ion of 34 br idge structures on Hon. Harry S. Lali the highway. Minister of Transportation and Highways Lavalin is part of a consor tium of three companies providing bridge co nstruction Interior MLA gets top assistant post expertise for the projec t , which is funded 50 per cent by the Worl d Bank.
Kootenay native son Ed Conroy has Buettner joi ns John Peters, a Coll ege at been appointed Parliamentary Secretary geot echn ician who used to be on the Castlegar and the to the Minister of Transportation and Vancouver Island Highway Pro ject and University of Highways. who is engaged as a geotechn ical Victoria, where he advisor to the Chin ese. Conroy, 51, has represented the majored in Rossland-Trail constituency in the Political Science Buettner's wif e, Donna , and Peters' wif e, pro vincia l legislatu re since the 1991 and Philosophy. Joan , have join ed thei r husbands on general election. their never-to-be-forgotten assignment Prior to his in the Middle Kingdom He is o ne of two provincial government election to the members appointed to the Pacifi c legislature, he Ed Conroy Northwest Economic Region Group , or was a towboat Fisheries folk grateful PNWER - a joint U S.-Canada body that ope rator with West ar Timber Ltd . and for work done in creek promotes the development of the also own s and operates a pur ebred Skeena District has received a northwest from Alaska to Oregon and cattle farm . Certificate of Gratitude from th e B.C. to Alberta and Mo ntana. Fittingly, An active community work er, Conroy is Department of Fisheries and Oceans for he is a member of the group's past president o f the Arrow Lakes Area environme nta l work at CableCar Creek, tran sportation committee. The other for Canadian Merchant Serv ice Guild , where a multiplate had to be repaired. B.C. member is Hon. Ian Wadd ell, who and has been involved in numerous sits on the executive of the group. As part of the pro ject , fi sh baffles were soci eties and o rganizations promoting installed to create pool s inside the As Parli amentary Secretary, Conroy sees the econom y and quality of li fe in the mult iplate for fish to rest when travell ing his role as "being of assistance to the west Kootenays. upstream. The multi plate was at 67 per mi nister in any way I can." He and his wif e Katr ine make their cent grad ient, which created a velocity Born in Rossland and raised in home in Pass Creek. They have four difficult for fish to travel up, but with the Castlegar, Conroy attended Selkirk chi ldren. installation of the ba ffles that is now corrected.
Th e Road Runn eris prod uced entirelyin-ho use by the Co mmuni cations Branch of theMinistry ofTransportation an d Hig hways and may not be rep rinted or republishedwithout perm ission. Letters or contributions fromstaffare alway s welcome an d shou ld be subm itte d to Belly Nich olson , Com munications Branch, Ministry of Tran spo rtation and Hig hways, Fi fth Floor, 940 Blanshard St., Victoria, B.C. V8W 3E6 . Phone: (250) 356-0332 ; Fax (250 ) 356- 7706.
2 Road Runner Winter 1998 Area manager needs good road savvy and lots of people skills -- Laurie has both
aurie Fulford proves if you are determined enough and Laurie Fulford Lsmart enough you can acco mplish just abo ut anything. woman on thego She has. Mor eover, she has done so in what is ostensibly a man's world.
Fulford is an area manager o f roads, one o f relati vely few women in the positio n in the province. Her area is Skeena, which she co-manages with Geof f Phill ips . At 31, she's been at compliment - he asked her to look after his area whil e he was the job for nearly six years, making her one o f the youngest on vacatio n. sta rte rs in the business. When an area mana ger trainee posit ion was offered in Nelson , But Fulford , who was born in Brockville. Ont ario. and raised in she applied and won handily A year-and-a-half later an area Vancouver, feels she's doing what comes naturally. An area manager position in the Prince Rupert came open ; she manager has to have a lot of people skills, and that's her forte, applied, and won again, beating out 54 other contenders in a honed by a passion for psychol ogy and an energy level that two-day competition. "They were looking for a fast learn er, just won't quit. She says she likes to help peo ple in trou ble someone with good co mmunicatio ns skills. a strong and solve problems, which is precisely what an area man ager und erstandi ng of management and organization, and a has to deal with day in and day out. methodol ogy to deal with problems: she recalls . She tit all When Fulford sta rted with the Ministry as a secretary in the the requirements. She was only 25 at the time. Burnaby region al office, she had no idea what her future Lauri e is now based in Terrace. Her job involves patroling her would bring. Soon, however, she discovered she had an area, inspecting work and job sites, monitoring the road apti tude for computers, and that opened a do or in systems conditi ons, developing long-term rehabilitation plans tor her adm inistration. She took part in the Opportunities '90s area, dealing with complaints and inquiries, meeting regularly program, designed to give secretaries engineering experience, with the maintenance contractor road foreman to discuss and this led to a posting in New Westmin ster as a work plans and deficiencies, investigating serious highway development approvals office r. There she met a number of area managers and was so taken with what they did, she accidents, and ensuring the safety of the travelling public. decided that would be her career goal. For a year, she The work has been extra challenging, because to gain shadowed them, especia lly Lloyd Paulson, on her days o ff and acceptance, she says, she's had to prove herself much mor e holidays . Paulson repaid her enthusiasm with the ultimate than a man would in the same pos ition. It's built determ ination, stamina, confidence and character.
Fulford says she doesn't shirk from manual work. "I've found that by physically getting involved, even in the worst possible work situation, it'll earn you a lot of respect from the crew and foreman." .
A big part of her job is hu ild ing rapport with the maintenance contractors, developing a team approach, something, she says, Paulson taught her well.
"You can't power trip, " she says. ' You've always got to remember they are people too. They get dressed one pant leg at a A highlight of Laurie's timein Terrace has been theconstruction of this dikebesidethe mightySkeena River. The job involved 2,603truckloads of riprap and cost more than $280,000. time, just like we all do ."
3 Road Runner Winter 1998 There's no business H1{e sno1lV business Avalanche danger is ever present over winter but the dangeris often highest in the month of February
or Bruce Allen, there's no business like the snow business. precipitation, wind speed and dir ection, humidity and FHe's been in it. on occasion up to his armpits, for the snowpack temperature measured at 20-cm intervals to a depth better part of 20 years. One of eight Min istry avalanche of four metres technicians poste d around the province, Bruce looks after the With the aid of a computer program called StormPro, avalanche Selkirk District , a vast , sparsely populated, mountainous technicians interpret the data Allen keeps a computer at region centred in Revelstoke and stretching to the Alberta bedside, so he can mon itor the weather whenever necessary border. He also has a portable computer with him in his truck."Over He and his four-member crew are dedicated to minimizing the winter, this is a 24 -hour-a-day job," he says. risk of avalanches crashing down onto the roads and Often he has to survey the snow packs from helicopter and up endangering the lives of travelers. to 20 times a year will drop bombs onto snowy slopes to They rely heavily on direct observation - how the snow looks initiate controlled avalanches. It is better to set off small and feels - as well as the knowl edge gained through on-the-job avalanches than wait for a big one to occur on its own, he experience. The size and shape of snow crystals tell a lot as says. do the layer boundaries that mark each succeeding snowfall. February is historically the wor st month for avalanches, Temperature variations within the snowpack are also crucial followed by December. But from November to April there's clues to the relative strength or weakness of the snow, says not much opportunity to relax vigilance . Allen, whose standard field equipment includ es both pocket magnifier and thermometer. An expert skier, Allen once worked in the hell-ski industry. In his youth while on ski patrol he had a few close shaves with Technology is helping improve forecasts. Eight electronic avalanches . A couple of times he got caught. but was never weather stations have been inst alled in remote locations completely buried. around the district. They transm it hourly air temperature, There's only one thing to do when threatened by an avalanche, he says - head straight downhill as fast as you can and turn in an arc to get outside its path.
At rigtJt , heli-bombing sets off massive avalanche ontheCoquihalla. Below right, Snow Avalanche Programs Manager Jack Bennetto tests a slope using theRutschblock technique.
Former Maintenance Branch director Bill Bedford, assistant avalanche technician WillyGeary and Avalanche aid Kevin Marrata 105mm recoilless rifle station in Kootenay Pass. Parti cipating in anorientation session are, left to right, Tee Cam Rawlinson, Scott Aitken, Jack Bennetto , Doug Tuck 31
4 Road Runner Winter 1998
Great Ideas Continued from page 1
hour labor and $50 per phone. Carr says as a result of suggestions received from staff, the ministry is now charging for cellular telephone repeater sites along highway rights of way. A new fee schedule for service and attraction signs has been established . Video conferencing centre revenues have increased. Freedom of Information requests for routinely available information are now chargeable at FOI rates. And the ministry's Print Shop is selling manuals and other publications it prints, a move that boosts revenues by $35,000 to $50,000 a year. Carr says total cost savings and new revenues are expected to reach around $5 million in the next fiscal year. And that means more money for fixing roads and saving ministry jobs. 'We are starting to see incremental increases," he says. "Once a suggestion is in place, it seems to take on a life of its own There are all sorts of downstream benefits. It's almost a multiplier effect: Ideas have continued to flow in. "Many employees beli eve finding ways to do things better is just part of their job: Carr says. And it's a part of the ministry's culture as well.
') Road Runner Winter 1998 ROAD
ake a weather patte rn so severe it Yet Regional Director Kathie Mill er notes Recent weather patterns Tprevents routine road maintenance for North and South Peace districts have have devastated farming a couple of years, and you've got a crisis prop ortionately mor e gravel roads than on your hands. Thafs what has happened anywhere in the province. Between and affected the booming in Peace River in northeastern B.C. where them they have II per cent of the local oil and gas industry, three years of wet weather have turned provincial road inventor y and 22 per making it difficult to much of the district into a virtual bog. cent of the gravel roads . move equipment over a District Highways Manager Bruce MacKay Webster says traditionally road road system that can't says in many places the water table is maintenance has involved applying a almost at the surface, unheard of for thi s thin layer of gravel to the main roads bear heavy loads. time of year. The late arrival of winter's once every three years. However, the deep freeze - it came around New Year's weather over the past two years has Day - didn't help matters. Ditches , full of prevented this from being carr ied out in Region water, froze solid , and mini glaciers crept many places. And that's why there are 4 across road surfaces, adding to problems tod ay. maintenance woes . develops Last summer the Minister responded to The weathe r has devastated farming and the crisis by allocating a special fund of affected the booming local oil and gas $2.6 million, followed by another a plan industry, which is fi nding it difficult to alloca tion of $700,000 to increase gravel move equip ment over a road system that sto cks. can't bear heavy loads. to deal Mill er says the solution lies in Bill Rose, the regio nal pro ject manager developing a specific strategic plan that with a based in Prince George, says the identifies which roads should be •• • underlying clay soil found in the area targeted for investments. Public cnsts In provides an effective sub-base if roads are consultation has been an imp ortant part constructed or covered when the weather's of the process. dry, but not in periods of wet. Then the There are more than 4,000 km of rural road landscape turns into gumbo , stopping roads in the district. and while some are everything in its tracks.. maintenance well used, many are not. and min istry Maintenance di ff iculties are compoun ded resources can't maintain them all. Thus, by a paucity of gravel. Miles Webster, the need to be more selective, to in the regiona l manager of pro fessional services sealcoat or pave most-used sectio ns, and planning says there is such a sho rtage while providing minimum maintenance beleaguered that the local description of a gravel pit is to the less-used roads. "a place where two rocks are found ' We need to concentrate on building a together: Peace River functional networ k.' says Webster. And it's a challenge the regio n can't delay in District meeting.
6 Road Runner Winter 1998
Doyle has seen great changes over the years but quality of staff has stayed high
here are few people around who ded ication he has seen in the highways Thave seen more of the province than staff. "Despite the changes, 1still have Dan Doyle, assistant deputy minister of the sense that our real strength is the Highways Operations. And there are quality of our people," he says. none around who know the highway Doyle has witnessed great change in the system better ministry and in the highway system . His In his 29 years (and counting) with the recip e for dealing with change, he says, mini str y, Doyle has served as district is always to stay ahead of it , and never engineer in McBride, district highways behind it. Dan Doyle manager in New Denver and Kamlo ops, One of the bigg est changes has been the regional maint enance engineer in expectation the public has of highway Nanairno. and region al highways services. "The more we improve our director in Terrace and Vancouver before that counts most in a job, that and a service, the greater the demand on his appointment to his current position, sense of commitment and ded ication. services becomes: he says. For which he has held since 1989. He has He owes a lot to a road foreman with example, the ministry didn't use to sand suppor ted eight premiers, 15 min isters little formal education who guided him or salt roads , but now the public expects and 10 deputy ministers. in his early days . "He had the patience it to be part of regular winter to take a young engineer and let him do Doyle, who holds a civil engineering maintenance. things, to touch the hot stove: says degree from UBC, says only one thing Doyle says over the years he's learned Doyle."It took time to train me, but he has remain ed constant over the years it's performance not paper qualification did ." and that's been the phenomenal
Taking on challenge all in days worll for Nyland
s a geological engineer specializing in geophysics, Dirk Highways Operations have been particularly impacted, and A Nyland, regional director of the North West Region, Nyland 's response has been to reshape groups into cohesive, understands how natural forc es change the multitalented teams, stressing versatility among earth. In a 25-year career with the ministry, he his 145-member staff. has applied his knowledge on a wide variety of Like most people who choose to live in the nor th pro jects, from the Coquih alla to the Nisga'a country, Nyland isn't one to shrink from Highway. challeng es. Nature has supplied plenty Since 198\ he has been based in Terrace, and extremes of weather, rugged mountains, deep since last April director of the region, fjords , and fast-flow ing waters give the North overseein g highway operations in a territory so West its distinctive stamp. Here, the holy grail is vast his native Holl and would fit into a tiny sliver a good quality gravel sour ce. Here roadbuilders of it. At the time of his appointment he was are challenged by coastal erosion , landslides, regional manager of professional services, and avalanches and rock cuts . Here resourcefulness has continued in that position as well. is a way of life. Dirk Nyland From contending with change on a geologic And it's a way of life that has kept Nyland in the scale, Nyland is now devoting his time to managing change at north raising his family, enjoying the outdoors and meeting the human level as the region deals with the effects of the grow ing demands of the job . restructuring and downsizing.
7 Road Runner Winter 1998
v Anscomb, the flagship of the peak summ er season and provid ing Vintage cars lineup to board theAnscomb made to looklike a Washington State ferryof MMarine Branch's Kootenay Lake much needed backup , the1940s, Below, thecrew whomade the service and oldest operating vehicle/ scenes possible are from left, engineer Don Usually the Balfo ur is retired for the off passenger ferry in British Columbia, was Mucha, Captain Don MacKinnon, deckhands season, but it was brought into service Buck Crawford, Keith Milne and Bob Sears, taken over recently by a Hollywood while the movie scenes were being shot. mate Paul Moreau, oilerBoris Faraguna and filmmaker for a big screen production, Kootenay marine manager AI DeYaeger. Captain AI Columbia Studios used the ship for DeYaeger. Marine shooting scenes for SI10W Fallil1g 011 Manager. Cedars, a film based on the best-selling Kootenay novel by David Cuters on. Operations, says The ship was made to appear as a late the movie makers 1
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