Helicopter on standby to deal with possible Alex Fraser ice bombs
Posted December 18, 2016 1:43 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – As another winter storm hits Metro Vancouver, the Ministry of Highways is keeping an eye out for any snow and ice build-up on the Alex Fraser bridge.
Twice this month, the threat of ice bombs plummeting onto the deck forced the bridge to close completely, throwing traffic into disarray.
But Norm Parks with the ministry says this weekend’s snow has been fluffy enough, and the temperatures cold enough, that whatever lands on the bridge cables simply blows away.
“When it’s cold, the snow doesn’t stick,” he explains. “It’s as it transitions out of that cold into warm that we start to get the wet, sticky snow. That’s the stuff that accumulates on the cables, and that’s the stuff we have to think about.”
The temperatures are expected to warm as the storm goes on, and rain should turn completely into rain by Monday morning.
Parks says they’re prepared to do something unprecedented if ice bombs start to form again on the Alex Fraser: send in a helicopter.
“The helicopter would transition in, would then go up and down beside the cables using its blade wash to blow the snow off,” he explains.
It would take roughly an hour to close the bridge lanes, another hour for the helicopter to clear the cables, and another half-hour to re-open the bridge.
After the season’s first big snowfall on December 5th, dozens of drivers filed claims with ICBC, saying falling snow and ice on the Alex Fraser and Port Mann bridges had smashed their windshields and broke off side-view mirrors.
The Port Mann bridge has snow-clearing collars in place since 2012, while the Alex Fraser has no such collars installed.
