Drivers on the province’s more than 400,000 kilometres of forest service and resource roads are being asked to pay attention to new mobile radio channels that will come into effect this weekend.
The new radio channels for forestry workers and other resource road users will take effect beginning Saturday, August 23 on Vancouver Island and parts of the South Coast, including Powell River.
The changes impact forest service roads and some roads created and maintained by private mining and forestry companies. They are part of a province-wide project to improve safety on the roads. As the amount of resource roads and users on these roads has increased over the last 30 years, so has mobile radio interference and crashes.
In 2009, the ministry of forests, lands and natural resources operations launched a pilot program in the South Peace region of the province in an attempt to make the roads safer. With the success of the pilot, the ministry has been working to expand the program throughout all of the province’s natural resource areas.
Frequency changes will be happening on several of Powell River’s forest service roads (FSR), including Saltery Bay, Texada, Kents, Beaver Lake near Dodd Lake, Duck Lake, Inland, Theodosia in the Southview-Wilde Road area. Trent Meyer, engineering officer in Sunshine Coast Natural Resource District added that the frequency change will also happen on Malaspina forest service road but may occur later due to plans for fall road work.
The ministry is posting signs on roads to notify users which radio channels to use and provide communication protocols, including the road name and required calling intervals.
Drivers will need to program the new channels into their mobile radios. They are also advised to retain current radio channels and frequencies until they are no longer required.
Despite these new protocols, the ministry spokesperson warned drivers to exercise caution when using the roads and that while the roads are radio-assisted, they are not radio-controlled and drivers should be aware of road and weather conditions.
