As Metro Vancouver grapples with more than 20 centimetres of falling snow on Wednesday, a video shared by the B.C. Ministry of Transportation is drawing attention to a job that is vital during winter weather.
Rope Access Technicians (also known as RATs) are tasked with manually releasing the heavy collars on the Alex Fraser Bridge to knock off any accumulation of snow and ice.
In the video, a crew member can be seen anchored high up on the pillars of the bridge and releasing the collars to prevent any ice bombs from forming.
Drivers are being warned there will be rolling closures in the right-hand lane of the bridge in both directions all day when those collars are being dropped.
The Ministry of Transportation is tasked with clearing ice and snow from the cables on the region’s bridges.
Ice bombs have been a periodic problem on the bridges, with criticisms raised by Port Mann drivers that heat strips weren’t installed on the cables to mitigate the issue.
Collars are now installed on both bridges and are released manually on the Alex Fraser Bridge and remotely on the Port Mann Bridge.
The ministry has spent millions of dollars to clear snow and ice from both spans in past years.