Alex Fraser cable-sweeping system won’t be ready for first snowfall: Transportation Ministry
Posted November 1, 2017 3:14 pm.
Last Updated November 2, 2017 7:34 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – It was hoped they’d be ready for December snowfalls, but the Ministry of Transportation admits today the installation of snow-sweepers on the cables of the Alex Fraser Bridge won’t be in place until late January.
Ashok Bhatti, who is the South Coast regional director for the Ministry of Transportation, says a custom system had to be designed for this bridge because its cables are a different size and angle than those on the Port Mann Bridge.
“We have to make sure that there’s some sound engineering principles behind everything that we’re looking at. We want to make sure that if we’re going to be investing in a cable collar system, because it is quite intensive, I mean you imagine that 192 cables, that’s close to 3,000 collars that need to be developed plus the associate systems, we want to make sure we got it right.”
Though the Alex Fraser’s cables don’t cross traffic lanes, Bhatti says wind is another problem engineers have to consider. “It is actually causing the snow as it melts and loses its grip on the cable to fall away from the cables and onto the travel lane.”
He adds tests aren’t able to be run until late in the last winter season. But despite the delay, Bhatti explains there will be precautions in place.
“We are stepping up our monitoring of the bridge just like we did last year. We will be putting a helicopter on stand-by and deploying that if necessary as we did last year.”
NEWS 1130 heard from several people last December who sent in photos and said their windshields were smashed due to falling ice on the Alex Fraser Bridge, as well as the Port Mann Bridge.
Installing the cable-sweeping system on the Alex Fraser will cost the province $5 million.
