By James Peters

Coquihalla maintenance contract to change hands later this year

Feb 4, 2019 | 11:56 AM

MERRITT, B.C. — The longtime maintenance contractor for the majority of the Coquihalla Highway system has lost that contract.

On Friday, February 1, the province’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MOTI) awarded the Nicola-area contract to Yellowhead Road and Bridge.

Yellowhead assumes the contract as of July 1, 2019, and MOTI says it won the contract through an open bidding process.

Since June of 2004, maintenance in the Nicola region, including the Coquihalla from Highway 97C to Portia, had been the purview of VSA Highway Maintenance, based in Armstrong.

An email from the ministry details new, more stringent standards Yellowhead will need to meet.

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They include:

• Increased communication with the public about rapidly changing road conditions during severe weather events and other incidents affecting travel on B.C. roads.
• Return Class A highways to bare pavement within 24 hours of a winter weather event ending at pavement temperatures of -9 C or warmer, when de-icing chemical use is safe and effective. The previous standard was 48 hours.
• Increase patrol frequency to 90 minutes on a Class A highway, like the Coquihalla, during a winter storm. The previous standard was four hours.
• When a weather event is forecasted to occur, increase the patrol frequency to four hours. The previous standard was 24 hours.

According to the MOTI website, Yellowhead now holds maintenance contracts for five of the province’s 28 service areas.

Open bidding processes are taking place throughout 2018-19 for 26 of those 28 regions.

It has been a rough road for VSA in the past few years, with the company absorbing criticism from several fronts, including the former Merritt mayor and council.