British Columbia Ministry of Transportation Staff Newsletter · 2018. 7. 12. · Ministry of...

Winter 2004

British ColumbiaMinistry of TransportationStaff Newsletter

Bon voyage, John Newhouse!After 34 1/2 years with the Ministry of

Transportation, family, friends and co-workersgathered at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club onSept. 26, 2003 to wish John Newhouse and hiswife Carol bon voyage as they embark into re-tirement. That afternoon several folks joinedJohn and Carol in an afternoon of sailing.

John started working for the ministry onMay 1, 1969 in construction. By 1975 therehad been various promotions to EngineeringAssistant on several construction crews.

From 1975 to 1981 and again from 1986 to1988, through promotions to Technician 1 and2, John was involved with the ministry’s Main-tenance Management System. This was fol-lowed by a short stint as Regional OperationsTechnician.

In 1989, John was promoted to DistrictHighways Manager in Terrace and held thisposition until 1994. From 1994 to 2002 he wasthe Manager of Maintenance Programs in

Victoria. In 2002 and 2003, John had taken onthe Project Director duties for negotiating thenew 10-year road and bridge maintenance con-tracts.

He played a significant role in the successof the privatization of road and bridge main-tenance for the Ministry of Transportation.John successfully managed some very difficultresponsibilities with diplomacy and came to beknown as the “peacemaker.”

On Feb. 4, 2003, John received the Queen’sJubilee Commemorative gold medal for hiscontributions to British Columbia. Perhaps thebest summation of John’s qualities for being acaring, thoughtful, sensitive and unassumingpublic servant are his actions during a closureof Highway 16 due to avalanche hazards whilehe was a district highways manager.

After Highway 16 had been closed for sev-eral days, it was announced publicly that it

John Newhouse and wife Carol chart a new course now that John has retired from the Ministry of Transportation.

Continued on page 2

A note fromthe editor

Many thanks to everyonewho submitted such agreat variety of articles forthis winter issue of RoadRunner.

I hope you’re finding thatthe Road Runner is be-coming a more people fo-cused newsletter. As aministry, we have much tobe proud of in the peoplewe work with and the ser-vices we provide.

If events or accomplish-ments in your corner ofthe province aren’t men-tioned in the newsletter,please take the lead inmaking sure they’re in-cluded in the next issue.I’m happy to work on thewriting with you.

If you have any commentson how to improve theRoad Runner, pleasecontact me.

Cindi Trowbridge

• • •

“Pearls come from irrita-tion. Where you feel themost stretch, pain or irri-tation may just be yourarea of biggest payback.Highly successful leadersare willing to push them-selves to do what mostother people won’t do.”

Jim Clemmer

Road Runner Winter 2004

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would reopen. Vehicles of all description were queued waitingto pass when another avalanche occurred. The snow was clearedaway, and to ensure the public’s safe passage, John personallypiloted all of the hundreds of vehicles through the mountainpass. John’s concern was at personal sacrifice because his eyesrequired medical treatment afterwards.

Now John and Carol will have more time to enjoy sailingand sunsets.

Newhouse put othersfirst to get the job done(Continued from page 1)

Friday, November 14, 2003was Lorena Green’s last daywith the Ministry of Transpor-tation . . . this time.

Lorena first left Victoriaand Pollution Control Branchin 1974 to work for Ministryof Transportation Design andSurvey in Prince George.

There she worked in thedesign office for two years andwas then transferred toGeorge Kusma and TedFloren’s survey crews as amobile employee.

In 1977 she won a compe-tition in Victoria and joinedGary Forgaard’s design team.

In 1979, Lorena resignedto start a family, daughtersTanya and Chelsea.

From 1980 to 1995 Lorenaworked for a number of pri-vate sector consultants onhighway design projects, andshe rejoined the ministry in1995, taking a role as the Speci-fications Technician in theConstruction and Mainte-nance Branch.

Due to restructuring in1996, she became theministry’s claim adjuster.

Lorena is now working asa highway design technicianfor AMEC in Nanaimo.

So long, Lorena, until next time

Lorena Green, then 24, surveying for the Nechako River Bridge site plan inVanderhoof in 1976.

Submitted by Dan Palesch

There are a lot of hurdlesto overcome amidst not onlya general office move but amove into a facility in Crestonwith other ministries with dif-fering viewsand ways ofdoing business.

T h r o u g hopen commu-nication and avision of this asan opportunityto provide bet-ter service, wewere able too v e r c o m emany obstacles,and now we are seeing the re-sult of this hard work.

As of September 2, 2003,we became a one-stop shop-ping network for four minis-tries, Agriculture, Food andFisheries; Public Safety andSolicitor General; Transporta-tion; and Water, Land and Air

A shared servicedelivery success■ It’s all about better

public service

Protection, making accesseasier for people and improv-ing the way we deal with cross-jurisdictional issues. It is alsovery beneficial having the

other agencies next door (lit-erally), to discuss issues that weshare in common.

As the lone ministry em-ployee in the Creston area,having other people around isproving invaluable, not onlyfor public service, but also asan added social benefit.


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Excellent customer service!Ministry staff continue to

provide excellent customerservice, and it doesn’t go un-noticed. Cindy Katchmar,District Development Techni-cian (left) and MichelleSchilling, Roads Area Managerin the 100 Mile House sub-of-fice of the Cariboo Districtreceived bouquets from a sat-isfied customer in April 2003.

A concerned propertyowner approached the 100Mile staff regarding the statusof an old trail through Canim

Estates subdivision that manylocals said was public. The trailwas frequented by individualson ATVs who littered and dis-rupted the neighborhood.

Michelle and Cindy re-searched the subdivision filesand registers and could find nomention of the trail being pub-lic. According to the propertyowner, since being advised thatthe trail is not considered pub-lic, the individuals that werethe problem are no longer uti-lizing the trail.

Submitted by Julian Malinsky

In July 2002, the Ministry of Trans-portation announced that it would nolonger provide esthetic mowing andlandscape maintenance on its rights ofway throughout the province.

The announcement created chal-lenges at several award-winning land-scape areas along the Trans-CanadaHighway within the city of Kamloops.

The landscape maintenance at inter-changes along the TCH between MonteCreek and the west end of Kamloopswas approaching an annual cost of$100,000. The Thompson-Nicola Dis-trict immediately began a dialogue withthe City of Kamloops and Argo RoadMaintenance (Thompson), exploringthoughts, ideas and possible options thatcould save six major landscape areas thatprovide a positive image to travellers driv-ing through the city.

On June 19, Randy Diehl, Chief CityAdministrator, emceed the media eventat Notre Dame and Columbia Street,where he announced the “Adopt a High-way Program” and unveiled two newsigns. The signs include the proposed

Partnership in landscape beautification

new city sign and the special “LandscapeSponsor Sign” (designed and manufac-tured by the MoT Sign Shop).

The event celebrated the successfulpartnership agreement between the Cityof Kamloops and the Thompson-NicolaDistrict, which solved a challenging prob-lem.

Argo Road Maintenance was the firstto put their name forward as a sponsorfor all the landscape in the Aberdeen In-terchange.

After several months of discussion

and debate, the following is a brief over-view of how problems created by thechange were successfully addressed:

1. The City of Kamloops assumesall the landscape maintenance activityat six interchanges along the TCH, in-cluding all irrigation maintenance, re-pairs and replacement; water charges;mowing; weeding; fertilizing; pruning;plant removal and replacement; watersmart changes; litter pick-up and soforth. The city will manage and admin-ister a sponsorship program, and theywill absorb all maintenance costs for ar-eas where sponsors cannot be obtained.

2. The Ministry of Transportation hasagreed to enhance the generic Service &Attraction signs by adding specially de-signed tabs to the proposed signs. Thetabs are designed to match and lead tonew directional signs planned throughoutthe city and send a message that it is safeto visit their city.

3. The discussions have brought thecity and MoT Properties Branch to thetable to help resolve several old outstand-ing right-of-way issues within the city.

A “win-win-win” for all stakeholders.

Claude Richmond, MLA, Kamloops West; MelRothenburger, Mayor of Kamloops; and Kevin Krueger,MLA, Kamloops East viewing the new sign unveiling.

Picture by Ross McLean, MoT Sign Shop Manager


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Earlier this winter, I hadthe opportunity to spend avery snowy day in the WestKootenay with Bruce Lintottrefreshing my memory on aday in the work life of an areamanager.

By the end of the day, Icouldn’t help but noticeBruce’s genuine pride in serv-ing the public,his concernfor their safetyand the sacri-fices andmemories he’smade.

Over hismore than 25years with theministry he, like many fellowemployees past and present,has worked in most corners ofthe province often away fromfamily, friends and familiarthings. He talked aboutmemories of working with

A Day in the Lifethose who went on to becomedistrict managers and direc-tors.

The day started out with adistrict management meetingto go over accomplishmentsand plan for work ahead. An-other area manager reported afatal accident the previous dayon the lakeshore east of

Nelson and hisneed to visitthe site.

W h i l eBruce and Ispent the restof the daydriving thehighways andside roads be-

tween Nelson, Fruitvale, Trail,Rossland and Castlegar con-cerned for the safety of thetravelling public, I was re-minded that there is no typi-cal day for area managers. Westopped by the local MLA’s

office and the RCMP detach-ment to check on public issues,talked to maintenance contrac-tor staff to see how they werefaring in the battle againstsnow and ice to make theroads as safe as they could andimpromptu meetings on theside of the road with con-cerned public and other min-istry staff.

Although there were sev-

eral accidents that day, thank-fully none were very serious.We viewed recently completedprojects and talked about theplanning underway for others.

After more than two yearsworking as an area manager inFruitvale, Trail and Castlegar,Bruce is happily returninghome again to work in theNakusp area and be with fam-ily, friends and things familiar.

Cindi Trowbridge with Bruce Lintott

Snow and ice are a challenge that ministry maintenance contractors battle.

On Nov. 20, 2003, 13 em-ployees from nine ministriesand organizations were for-mally recognized for complet-ing the Financial ManagementCertificate Program (FMCP).

The Honourable GaryCollins, Minister of Finance,presented the grads with theircertificates during a ceremonyheld at the Hotel Grand Pa-cific in Victoria. Congratula-tions were also conferred byComptroller General Arn vanIersel and by the ExecutiveFinancial Officers of thegrads’ various organizations.

The Financial Manage-ment Certificate Program issponsored by the Office of theComptroller General andLearning Services and is foremployees presently perform-ing or interested in perform-ing financial management orauditing duties in government.

It is specifically designedfor those employees followingor planning to follow a pro-gram of studies leading to aprofessional accounting desig-nation granted by the CertifiedManagement Accountants So- Comptroller General Arn van Iersel; Gary Collins, Minister of Finance; Jeanne

Wilson, Financial Analyst, Kamloops; Cliff Parker, District Services Manager,New Westminster; and Jeff Thom, Information and Privacy Analyst, Victoria

Way to go, grads!Financial Management Certificate Program

Continued on page 5


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ciety (CMA) or the Certified GeneralAccountants Association (CGA). Theprogram requires participants to completenine professionally recognized account-ing courses plus six other governmentcourses.

Employees take the non-governmentcourses on their own time and completethe program in three to seven years. Since

the program’s inception, 235 employeeshave received their certificates and a highpercentage has gone on to complete ad-ditional requirements and earn their des-ignation as Certified General Accountants(CGA) or Certified Management Accoun-tants (CMA).

For more information, check the website at http://www.bcpublicservice.ca/learning/pdf/FMCP_brochure.pdf.


Clean-up and repairs after the firesnorth of Kamloops include emergencyrepairs to a burnt bridge on WestsideRoad, partnering with BC Hydro on a$500,000 danger tree removal project, re-placement of 15 kilometres of right-of-way fencing and the necessary rock scal-ing.

The fire burned trees and destroyedsignificant root systems on three rockslope sites south of Barriere at Fish Trap(120 metres high), Shale Slide and Exlou.David Gerraghty, Senior Rockwork En-gineer and John Schindel, RockworkProject Technician, professionally man-aged the investigative assessment work,planning and design and restorationprojects.

Murrin Construction was the primecontractor on two sites, also receiving as-sistance from previous Ministry of Trans-portation employees running their ownbusinesses, such as Apex Int. (Ron Tay-lor), Walden Project Services (OleWalden), and Shyia Rock Work (JimGuinn and Neal Denis).

Work at the Shale Slide has been on-going since September. This project wascomplicated by the proximity of High-way 5N and the CN Rail and the pres-

Post-fire challenges in theThompson-Nicola District

ence of a 135,000-kilovolt transmissionline and distribution line below the rockslope.

During rock scaling, a rock half a cu-bic metre in size narrowly missed one ofthe large three-pole structures on the BCHydro transmission line, which wouldhave left approximately 10,000 serviceswithout power.

Special delineator structures were de-signed by Dave Cunliffe, P.Eng in con-cert with BC Hydro and built to protecttwo large Hydro structures, which allowsfor the safer completion of the necessaryscaling.

The delineators consist of nine heavysteel pipes that are seven metres long and60 centimetres in diameter, installed in a“V” formation on the uphill side, withlarge concrete blocks supporting the bot-tom side of the Hydro structure.

Three metres of the pipes are buriedand the upper parts are sleeved with usedSkidder tires. The bottom two tires arefilled with pea gravel to help absorb theimpact of falling rocks.

Happily, the new delineators passed animpact test of a two-cubic-metre rock,which would have destroyed one of thepole structures and landed on the high-way. Scaling was halted in December andwill be completed after spring thaw.

John Schindel was successful in work-ing with the many stakeholders, namelyBC Hydro, CNR, R&B Contractor, con-tractors, consultants, tree fallers and min-istry district and regional staff, ensuringthat the projects were completed in a mostprofessional, effective and efficient man-ner.

The Thompson-Nicola District ex-tends a special thanks to John Schindel,David Gerraghty and their contractors fora job well done!

(Continued from page 4)

FMCP: 235 have received certificates

The photo on the left shows an emergency stabilization project at Shale Slide on Highway 5. The areacircled in red is the initial impact location of a scaled boulder. The white-outlined area shows where therock impacted the berm. And the yellow outline indicates the final location of a two-cubic-metre scaledboulder.

The photo on the right is a wider view of the Shale Slide area where special delineators are being used.


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The Thompson-Nicola District was asked to hosta Chinese delegation on Nov 26 & 27, 2003, by TTA(Technology Training Associates Ltd.), a subsidiaryof BCIT. They wanted to learn about low-volumeroad maintenance practices in BC’s Interior.

The Chinese delegation consisted of 17 execu-tive/engineering types from western China whoworked for the Ministry of Communication (respon-sible for roads) and represented 11 of the 31 prov-inces.

Argo Road Maintenance (Thompson) Ltd gave thedelegation a tour of their new Kamloops facility andequipment and graciously provided us their board-room.

The visit included a half-day presentation on ourroad and bridge maintenance procedures. The nextday included a visit to the Kamloops weigh scales anda field trip north of Kamloops. The delegation rodeon the reaction ferry at McLure, viewed the Barriereburn area and witnessed remedial rock scaling southof Exlou.

Jeff Du, TTA Training Manager, was very pleasedwith the visit and our exchange of information.

At Argo’s yard in Kamloops, the delegation joins (from centre to right) Julian Malinsky, District Business Manager,Tom Bone, Argo General Manager, Mehran Avini, P.Eng. representing ND Lea, and Harvey Nelson, OperationsManager.

Transportation& roads in

China:● Annual transportation budget of

$50 billion.● Car ownership is growing at 20%

per year (60% in Beijing last year).● 25,000 km of “toll” freeways are

being built per year.● One of the cities represented by

the delegation has 32 millionpeople.

● Mongolia is 1,600 km wide and2,400 km long.

● Two provinces alone have120,000 and 160,000 km of roads.

● 90% of roads are low-volume,mostly dirt roads with no embank-ment or ditches.

● Major road damage is attributedto a lack of weigh scales and poorload enforcement.

Chinese delegation visits B.C. tolearn about road maintenance

Doug Kirkretires after34 years

On November 28, 2003,Doug Kirk retired from theMinistry of Transportationafter 34 years of service.

Doug started with the min-istry on April 10, 1970 in theWilliams Lake District as anEngineering Aide. Over thecourse of the next seven years,he worked in almost every cor-ner of the district includingBella Coola, Likely, Horsefly,Alexis Creek, Dog Creek andAnahim Lake. The exposureto the world of field survey,design, construction andmaintenance was terrific expe-rience and varied from loca-tion to location.

In May of 1977, he wassuccessful at a competition forthe position of District Tech-nician in Prince Rupert and heand his wife, Millie, and youngson, Wayne, relocated in Juneof that year. The exposure inthe Prince Rupert District wastremendous and often in-cluded dealing with the after-math of sever coastal rainstorms that brought aboutlarge scale repairs to roads andbridges as a result of washouts.

Transportation around thedistrict was common by air-plane and helicopter reachinglocations on the Queen Char-lotte Islands, Stewart andMeziadin. There were oftendiscussions between the Dis-trict Highways Manager andDoug about who was going tofly to the Charlottes duringunpredictable weather events.

Continued on page 7


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However, remainingstatic was not inDoug’s nature, andin 1980 he won theposition of DistrictHighways Managerin Dease Lake. OnApril 1, 1981, Doug,Millie, Wayne andnewly born Morganwere all heading upHighway 37 to makeresidency in thesmall community ofDease Lake. It ishere that Doug andhis family were ex-posed to the hugeexpanses of thenorthern part of theprovince steeped in history of the earlyGold rush days that came about in loca-tions such as Bob Quinn, Tattoga andGood Hope lakes, Atlin, Telegraph Creek,Watson Lake and Whitehorse. It was alsothe first time the bite of temperaturessinking to -52 C was experienced, alongwith the most wonderful displays ofNorthern Lights.

In June of 1984, Doug was transferredto the Robson Valley and worked out ofthe McBride District office for the next

A few words fromDoug Kirk to theministry on his

retirementI could not possibly think of a better

provincial government ministry to workfor. A ministry that would not only testone’s ability to deal with extenuating cir-cumstances but that would make a tre-mendous effort to have people properlytrained, allow them the opportunity to de-velop, to be creative and advance in theircareers. The Ministry of Transportationhas and continues to be a leading minis-try in government and maintains its long-standing reputation of being a “can do”ministry.

The challenges put forward to minis-try employees over the past 34 years havebeen met head on and always with suc-cess in providing for the highway user andthe public overall. These challenges havevaried from dealing with extreme weatherevents to building significant pieces of in-frastructure and being the assisting handin significant areas of developmentsaround the highway network, throughoutthe province.

I am extremely proud to say that I havehad the opportunity to work with manytalented and capable individuals within theMinistry of Transportation throughoutmy career. The challenges of the futureare going to be significant. Our organi-zation has been reduced in size, whichmeans that managing how the work willbe done will be in the forefront of day-to-day business. The people within theMinistry of Transportation, I am confi-dent, will rise to the occasion now as theyhave in the past.

To all of my peers, associates andfriends I must say one last thank you foryour guidance, patience, advice and mostof all your friendship. I am not certain asto what the future may bring, but I amconfident that our paths will cross again.

All the best,D.S. Kirk (Retired)

five years. Challenges still abounded andranged from major floods and earth slidesthat closed highways 16 and 5 on numer-ous occasions to the privatization of thehighway maintenance sector in 1988.

In 1989, Doug and family relocatedto Merritt where he became District High-ways Manager, taking on the CoquihallaHighway expansion, significant rehabili-tation programs for roads and bridges,and overseeing maintenance contractorsand contract renewals in the Merritt area.

A career of constant change

Doug receiving his long service award from Lieutenant Governor IonaCampagnolo and former Minister Judith Reid

Kudos for good teamworkBig kudos to supervisor Bob Wilson,

Mike Cormie and Dan Johnson of theKootenay electrical crew for quickly in-stalling a streetlight for the MarysvilleSchool crosswalk on Highway 95A in No-vember 2003. The project was cost-shared with the City of Kimberley. Theparents, school board and crossing guardrequested the light to increase safety forstudents using the crosswalk, particularlyduring the darker winter months.

(Continued frompage 6)


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Marilyn Mattson retiresSubmitted by Linda Malo

Marilyn Mattson has retired after 14 years of public service.Her career started in Terrace as the Regional Manager, Financeand Administration, followed by terms in Victoria as ActingDirector, Management Services for Motor Vehicle Branch.

After acting as Regional Manager, Traffic Operations forone year, she won the competition for this position in the SouthCoast Region in September 1998.

On April 9, 2003, a retirement luncheon was held in Marilyn’shonour at the Santorini Taverna in Coquitlam. Attendees in-cluded those that she worked with while in the Northern Re-gion. She is now happily retired and living in Nanaimo.

Submitted by Leona Constantineau

A farewell dinner was heldOctober 18, 2003 in DeaseLake for retiring road mainte-nance crewmember John“Mumbles” McPhee.

Here’s an excerpt fromRob McPhee’s tribute to hisdad:

“Back in the ’60s, whendriving the Telegraph Roadwas an adventure, FatherMcAllister, the priest fromCassiar, who always spentmore time talking to his pas-sengers than concentrating onhis driving, would often end upin the ditch.

Consequently, when he wastravelling back and forth fromTelegraph, he would try toleave a half hour before Dadso that Dad would be able topull him out and get him backon the road.

Someone once com-mented, “Father, with all theaccidents you have, you musthave the Lord riding with you,”to which the good Father re-plied: “Well, yes, I guess I do;

“Dease 70 . . . Clear”

but I put more faith in havingJohnny McPhee behind me.

“Dad started work as anauxiliary with the Ministry ofHighways in Telegraph Creekin 1956. He has operated ev-erything from Cats, dumptrucks, low-beds, loaders andeven the old pole graders.

“When Highways estab-lished a permanent mainte-nance camp at Dease Lake in1965, Dad was one of theoriginal crewmembers, mainlyworking as the cat skinner. Heswitched over to the graderabout 1980. Dad continued

John “Mumbles” McPhee

Continued on page 10

Ministry Long Service Awardsfor 2002 & 2003

The Long Service Awards provide the opportunity torecognize employees for their dedication and commitmentto the Province of British Columbia.

Employees with 25, 35 and 40 years of service werehonoured on Oct. 22, 2003 in Victoria with an awards cer-emony, buffet dinner and dance at beautiful GovernmentHouse.

Former Minister of Transportation Judith Reid andLieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo attended to offertheir best wishes.

Eighty-nine Ministry of Transportation staff receivedtheir 25-year award and 11 received their 35-year long ser-vice awards. A proud accomplishment!

Gregg Singer, Deborah Miller and Bob Buckingham show off the LongService Awards they received at an October 2003 ceremony featuringformer Minister of Transportation Judith Reid and Lieutenant GovernorIona Campagnolo.


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Northern Region is pleasedto announce the addition ofthree key players to the Plan-ning and Partnerships team -one with a wealth of experi-ence, another just beginninghis career, and the third a re-cent transplant from Ontario.

Greg Woollacott takes onthe role of Manager, PropertyAcquisition; Dennis Nguyenwill be working toward his pro-fessional accreditation as theTransportation Planning En-gineer-in-Training; and the lat-est addition is James Luo, whowill serve as the region’s newTransportation Planning En-gineer.

A recent transplant fromDuke Energy, Greg bringswith him a wealth of knowl-edge and experience extendingwell beyond the realm ofproperty management.

With more than 23 years asa Registered Professional For-ester and land use planner withthe BC forest industry, govern-ment, natural gas industry andFirst Nations, Greg can offera high degree of customer ser-vice to his regional clients.

Greg acquired his under-graduate degree in forestry andMasters of Science in Planningfrom UBC. He is currently inthe process of becoming aMember of the Canadian In-stitute of Planners.

Greg, his wife Joan andteenagers Tyler and Robin arelong-time residents of PrinceGeorge. An avid outdoors-man, Greg is frequently in

search of big game or trophy-size fish.

Dennis Nguyen is theTransportation Planning EIT.Though the parameters of thattask will evolve over time, hedoes know it will entail a lotof learning, but that’s OK.

His time here will allowhim the luxury of experienc-ing a few different work as-signments before deciding thearea he wants to specialize in.Assignments to date have in-corporated a lot of reading.

“Much of what I’m deal-ing with now, I studied inschool, but real life applicationrequires a more in-depth look.

Jin (Oh) always tells methat what you learn in schoolis just the tip of the iceberg.When you get out in the realworld, it’s not as simple as

what was in the text book.”

Dennis acquired his degreein environmental engineeringfrom the University of Regina.Having grown up inSaskatchewan, Dennis hasfound living amongst the treesand mountains of British Co-lumbia to be a bit of an ad-justment but a nice changenonetheless. His love ofmountain biking will certainlytake on a new dimension.

“Finding a nice trail is a loteasier here than inSaskatchewan,” he chuckled.

Dennis appears to beadapting nicely to his new sur-roundings and has no desire toreturn to the flatlands. So far,it looks like a great start to apromising career!

Now if only Dennis canscore a teaching position in

Prince George for his girl-friend, life will be really good!

And then there’s JamesLuo, who is not only a new-comer to the ministry and toour province but a recent im-migrant as well.

Originally from China,James acquired his Civil Engi-neering Degree from WuhanUniversity of Hydraulic andElectric Engineering in 1992.

He worked for an engineer-ing consulting company inNanjing, a city a little biggerthan Vancouver, before mov-ing to Canada.

James added a Masters de-gree in Civil Engineering (spe-cializing in transportation en-gineering) from the Universityof Regina in 2002.

From there, he joined J.Foster Engineering Ltd., inBarrie, Ontario, where heworked as a civil/municipalengineer.

The Planning and Partner-ships group was able to lureJames away to take a positionand become a Regional Trans-portation Officer (Transporta-tion Planning Engineer) begin-ning in November. Here,James will be working on as-signments in transportationplanning, land use planning,capital program developmentand programming as well asbusiness case preparation andengineering economic analy-ses.

We welcome all our newfaces!

The Northern Region Planning and Partnerships group has expanded toinclude (left to right) Greg Woollacott, Manager, Property Acquisition; DennisNguyen, Transportation Planning EIT; and, James Luo, RegionalTransportation Officer.

New faces: Northern Regionadds a trio to Partnerships


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with Highways until privatization. Sincethen he’s worked for the road mainte-nance contractors, NoRoadCo, YRB,North Peace and Emcon.”

John was presented with several min-iature replica graders, including a polegrader, along with a new Stetson, grey incolour to match his hair!! We will all missseeing John grading our roads in Area 28.Best of Luck to you, John.

Dease 70 . . . Clear.


McPhee: Serving theNorth since 1956

2003 customer service championsAfter the more than 1,043 customer

surveys were completed by Ministry ofTransportation staff and the numberswere crunched, the staff of the WestKootenay District were found to be the

Back row: Brent Bailey, Denise Bollinger, Hugh Eberle, Phil Best, Stephanie Gillis, Duane Neufeld, Peter Muirhead, John Tweedy, Dan Palesch, Bruce LintottFront row: Paul Heikkila, Chad Tenney, Larry Ballard, Donna Fitzpatrick, Carol Woykin, Audrey Kempin, Fred Hughes, Jacques Dupas, Kim Rowan, JaniceMcCarthy

2003 customer service champions. Theyreceived a Customer Service Index (CSI)rating of 7.02 out of 10. The CSI is basedon responsiveness, effectiveness, accessi-bility, efficiency and complaint handling.

In recognition of their achievement,staff were given monogrammed poloshirts and will soon be hosting the cus-tomer service trophy until the 2004 cus-tomer service champions are determined.

All tied upNormally a guy who might considerhimself lucky to find a lump of coal inhis stocking, Provincial ApprovingOfficer (and resident ham) GlynBriscoe is seen here sporting the newtie Santa brought him (over the oldtie, underneath).

Actually, staff in Northern Regiongrew weary of Mr. Briscoe’s “one tieserves every occasion” concept, soa collection was taken to come up withthis spiffy little number from thebargain bin!


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Submitted by Leslie Elder

AND THE YEAR WAS 1953!! ThePeace District had four of their staff turnthe dreaded 50 this past year! DwainHornland, Project Manager in Fort St.John, John Miller, Road Area Manager inDawson Creek, Stan Beaulieu, DistrictTechnician in Dawson Creek and BruceCraig, District Technician in Fort St. John.

For those of you that have beenaround since 1993, you may recognize thephoto on Bruce’s birthday cake! It’s hardto believe that 10 years have passed sinceBCIT was providing training to Devel-opment Approvals staff!

For those of you that didn’t take ad-vantage of the career developmentcourses at BCIT, you probably didn’tknow that belly dancing was one of themost popular courses! Another one ofthose hidden talents of the DevelopmentApprovals staff!

Joanne Chambers from the Peace Dis-trict was very persuasive when it came tocollecting donations from the staff forthe annual PECSFcampaign.

Thanks toJoanne, our staffdonated a total of$630.50. Forthose that made adonation, theirname was put intoa regional draw foran assortment ofgifts. Bruce Craigwas the winner ofa $125 gift certifi-cate. Congratulations Bruce! Joanne alsoimplemented a 50/50 draw that collected$179, with half going to the United Way,and the winner of the other $89.50 wasDale Hillman. Yes, the Dale Hillman whoused to work for Ministry of Transpor-tation and left us six years ago to workwith Duke Energy.

Thanks to all the staff that made gen-

erous donations to very worthy organi-zations. And thanks to Joanne for all herhard work!

At the beginning of 2003, the PeaceDistrict welcomed newcomers DaveDuncan and Neil Wood, as well as JimGuthrie who returned to us after an ex-

tended holidaywith Forestry. Inthe later part of2003, we wel-comed some morenewcomers to thedistrict. DougRennie and SachaAntifaeff joined usas the new District

O p e r a t i o n sTechnicians.They will havea busy yearahead withboth Northand SouthPeace mainte-nance con-

News from the Peace...

tracts coming up for renewal in 2004 andof course the RIMS project.

Bill Becker joined us in December asthe new Bridge Area Manager in Dawson

Creek, replacing Larry Ballardwho moved to Grand Forks inJune 2003.

Nicole Ramsey left the“sunny” Okanagan behind herand moved to the “sunny”Peace to fill our vacant clerkposition. Although Nicolehasn’t got used to the northernway of life yet, she has settledinto the office and has becomea welcome addition.

Dan Hillman with the District Ghoules

Bruce’s 40th birthday surprise at BCIT in 1993(above), and the commemorative birthday cakegiven to him 10 years later for his 50th (right)

Dave Duncan & Buddy



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A year has come and gonesince Dave Duncan joined thePeace District, and believe it ornot, we have survived!

It has been a very busy yearand one filled with lots ofchange, not only within ourdistrict but throughout ourministry. For those of you thatknow Dave, you will under-stand that it can be challeng-

ing to sit Dave down and havea serious conversation. He iswell known for his paperclipart and the pens around the of-fice all seem to end up broken!

Although the life of a Dis-trict Manager takes them outof the District a lot, Dave didmanage to visit a large part ofthe Peace in the past year. Iwas actually able to get him outof the office for a few days in Dave, Julia & Emily

(Continued from page 11) August so he could visit the farreaches of the Peace District.We visited the “Terminus ofthe Rocky Mountains” atMuncho Lake, where Davemade friends with “Buddy.”

Dave and his wife Juliahave settled into Fort St. Johnand actually seem to enjoy lifein the north. They also wel-comed their first daughter,Emily, on November 29.

News from the Peace: A busy time for Dave Duncan


Bonnie Whipple received a monogrammed vest from Mike Proudfoot inrecognition for going the extra mile in customer service. But it doesn’t endthere. Mike also handed Bonnie the keys to his office, making her ActingDistrict Highways Manager for Vancouver Island as Mike leaves to beExecutive Director for the Gateway Project. Much success to both of you!

HR branch mentorshipweb site is now on-line

The Human ResourcesBranch has put together a website on mentorship, online athttp://gww.th.gov.bc.ca/gwwmentor/.

The site provides a re-source for information onmentorship, including an over-

view of roles and responsibili-ties of mentors and protégé,how to build an effectivementoring relationship andfind a mentor, as well as linksto other resources onmentorship.

Take a look!

Conference highlightsglobal connections

Submitted by Sharlie Huffman,Bridge Seismic Engineer

The sun was shining, a lightbreeze blowing and Athens’famed air pollution not in evi-dence. Still, 500 engineersfrom 47 countries sat insideone of the three theatres at theMegaron Concert Hall givingclose attention to the speakers.This was the prestigious Inter-national Federation for Struc-tural Concrete (fib) Sympo-sium on “Concrete Structuresin Seismic Regions” and fea-tured engineering and scien-tific experts from around theworld.

Forty-three papers fromAsia/Pacific Rim, 125 fromEurope and 39 from theAmericas showed how muchthe state-of-the-art in the fieldof structural concrete has im-proved over the last couple ofdecades and indicated the wayof necessary improvements toour codes. The fib has longoffered the message that “en-gineering associations are thebest forerunners of regional

and global co-operation.” Thetruly global representation ofthe participation at this sym-posium supports that message.I was very honoured to be pre-senting a paper in this com-pany.

Working with ISIS (Intelli-gent Sensing for InnovativeStructures), a national researchorganization based inWinnipeg, the ministry usednew synthetic material toseismically strengthen the Por-tage Bridge and instrumentedit with strain gauges and accel-erometers. My paper, jointlywritten with ISIS, was on thetopic of this instrumentation.For those who would likemore information, the full pa-per will shortly be on theBridge Engineering web siteand the instrumentation atPortage Bridge can be viewedat the ISIS site, http://130.179.57.204/ActiveSHM/PCmainpages/PCL.htm.

My presentation was onthe last day, by which time I

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Outstanding achievement

For outstanding contribution to the Alternative Services Delivery, geotechdrilling initiative, Nancy Merston, Project Manager, Alternative ServicesDelivery recognizes Miles Webster, Regional Manager, Engineering; MariaBraden, Manager, Financial Services; and Bob Corder, Regional Manager,Corporate Services.

Don Ramsay, District Manager, Transportation, Skeena recognizes thePeace, Bulkley Stikine and Fort George Districts for their kind donationsto the Skeena District. Steve Uyesugi, District Manager, Transportation,Bulkley-Stikine; Hali Davenport, Acting District Manager, Transportation,Peace; and Danny Morris, Acting District Manager, Transportation, FortGeorge, graciously accept Certificates of Meritorious Selflessness onbehalf of their respective districts.

For outstanding dedication and service during the fires in the Kamloopsregion in August 2003, Tracy Cooper, Regional Director presents DonRamsay, District Manager, Transportation, Skeena with a Certificate ofRecognition. At an earlier presentation, Grant Lachmuth, District Manager,Fort George was also recognized for his outstanding dedication and serviceduring the fire and flood emergencies in July and August 2003.


Submitted by Dianne Friend

On Oct. 21, 2003, a retirement luncheon was held at theEagle Creek Golf Club in Burnaby to honour Lawren Wagar,Regional Manager, Engineer, South Coast Region. A fittinglocation for this avid golfer!

Lawren received many accolades for his many contribu-tions to the ministry during the course of his more than 31years of exemplary service. Family, friends, co-workers andformer co-workers came from as far away as Terrace for theoccasion. Many congratulatory letters from those that wereunable to attend and a little roasting was done to the delightof all the attendees.

Lawren, like many other Ministry of Transportation em-ployees, has worked throughout the province. He started inthe summer of 1971 as a summer student with Bridge Branch.In June 1972, he joined the ministry as an engineer-in-train-ing, working in Kamloops, Nakusp, Terrace, Quesnel,Revelstoke, Victoria and Prince George. From November1973 to August 1976, he was the District Highways Managerin Burns Lake. From August 1976 to June 1978, Lawren wasin Nelson as the Regional Bridge Engineer and MaintenanceManagement Engineer.

He then went on to be the Maintenance Programs Engi-neer in Victoria until November 1988 where he developedthe first bridge information system for the province and newcoating system standards for steel bridges, as well as takingthe lead in developing the maintenance standards for theprivatization of road and bridge maintenance in 1988.

Lawren then went north to Prince George as the RegionalManager, Operations until July 1996. Moving back to thesouth, he was the District Highways Manager for the LowerMainland District from August 1996 to October 1997, con-cluding his career as the Regional Manager, Engineering.

We wish Lawren and his wife Carol Ann a healthy andenjoyable retirement and lots of time for golfing.

Lawren Wagar Retires

(left to right) Stepfather Albert Lee, mother Ethel Lee, Lawren, wife CarolAnn, John Dyble, mother-in-law Nellie Wilhelmsen (hidden) Gebre Libsekalfriend and former MoT employee, Bea Libsekal.


was a bundle of nerves.The quality of the presenta-tions I had attended was veryhigh and I was following Pe-ter Taylor, of Buckland andTaylor. As I gave my talk to ahuge audience, in spite of my

fears, I didn’t spot anyone fall-ing asleep, some well-directedquestions were asked and I wasapproached afterward andcomplimented on the presen-tation. What a relief, but I stillthink I would prefer to be atthe front of the program.


Portage Bridge work takesministry employee to Athens

Submitted by Al Planiden

Wildlife related motor ve-hicle collisions are one of theoperational legacies of high-way development throughoutthe world.

Living in a province wherethere are more deer, mooseand other critters wanderingout onto the road than prob-ably anywhere else on earth,gives drivers in BC more ne-gotiation challenges than amouse living with two cats.

Fortunately this is an issuehas that has not been ignored,thanks in large part to the ef-forts of Len Sielecki, Environ-mental Issues Analyst with theEngineering Branch. Len andthe ministry’s Wildlife Acci-dent Reporting System(WARS) were recently featuredin a two-page article in the in-ternational publication “WorldHighways.”

The WARS system was ini-tiated in the late ’70s by MikeKent, the ministry’s ChiefEnvironmental Officer, andthrough Len’s continued ef-

forts, it has been developedinto a state-of-the-art manage-ment tool that is the envy ofother transportation jurisdic-tions.

It works like this: Ourhighway maintenance contrac-tors collect wildlife accidentinformation whenever the re-mains of an animal is discov-ered along the highway.

Contractors complete anaccident reporting form thatprovides geographic, temporaland species-specific informa-tion.

Completed forms are sentto Ministry of Transportationdistrict offices, where the re-ports are assembled and veri-fied, and then on to headquar-ters where the data is enteredinto the WARS database.

That’s when the “analyst”part of Len Sielecki’s titlecomes into play. Len takes theinformation and dissects andinterprets the data in enoughways to produce a hefty annualWARS report. The ministryuses the data and report rec-

ommendations to identifyproblem locations and thingssuch as wildlife habits next tohighways.

This information allowsthe ministry to consider wild-life accident mitigation mea-sures such as warning signs,exclusion fencing, reflectorinstallation and wildlife cross-ing structures.

Liaisons have been estab-lished with ICBC, and the min-istry has successfully cost-shared with them in providingneeded improvements to ad-dress wildlife issues alonghighways. When you considerthat between 1997 and 2002,the Insurance Corporation ofBritish Columbia paid almost$120 million in wildlife-relatedmotor vehicle accident claims

and our maintenance contrac-tors have spent over $6 milliondollars on related accidentcleanup since 1993, moneyused for mitigation efforts ismoney well spent.

In November of 2003, Lenwas also invited to speak onthe ministry’s wildlife accidentreduction initiatives at the In-fra Eco Europe Network(IENE) conference in Brus-sels, Belgium. Over 180 high-way engineers, planners, ad-ministrators and ecologistsfrom 29 countries attended,and his presentation was verywell received.

In Europe and the UnitedStates, transportation officialsare viewing WARS as themodel to follow in developingtheir own programs.

Ministry WARSleading the way

Len Sielecki next to a deer jump in Belgium

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Way to go,Lorne!

Lorne Bonderoff,Project Supervisor, Designin Nelson (Southern Inte-rior Region), received a vestand framed award earlierthis year in recognition ofhis outstanding customerservice.


New faces for the Southern InteriorRegion Regional Management Team

Larry Brown, Glenn Olleck and Harvey Nelson

Larry Brown, Bridge AreaManager in Nelson, won theOperations Manager positionin Cranbrook. Harvey Nelson,Bridge Area Manager inKamloops, won the Opera-tions Manager position in

Kamloops. Glenn Olleck,Roads Area Manager inRevelstoke, won the Opera-tions Manager position inRevelstoke. These three arethe new additions to theSouthern Interior Regional

Management Team. This isjust the beginning of new facesthe SIRMT. Congratulationsto each of you for anothergreat achievement with theministry. Best of luck in yournew positions.

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RetirementCelebrations in

Victoria &Kamloops

Victoria

Honouring Bill Bedford

12 p.m.March 11, 2004

Kiplings RestaurantEmpress Hotel

Tickets $23 eachIncludes buffet, dessert &non-alcoholic beverage

Sherry Barnes(250) 387-8597

Elaine Galbraith(250) 356-6225

Kamloops

A farewell to:

Jon BuckleRod Schoof

Barrie LeBlondJim Jones

Paul PrudenPete Puhallo

Virginia CurrieRoger Reimche

7 p.m., March 26, 2004Campus Activity Centre

UCC

Tickets $30 eachin advance

Crystal Chenier(250) 828-4284

Lois Park(250) 828-4277

Justclownin’around

Looks like some of thefolks in the BulkleyStikine District(Smithers Office) reallygot into Halloween.Pictured here areSherrie Applegate,Development Approvals- Office Clown; LeonaConstantineau, DistrictServices Manager -Flower Child; and MarkSavage, Project Tech -Mud Runner.

British Columbia Ministry of Transportation Staff Newsletter · 2018. 7. 12. · Ministry of...

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