Driving B.C. home: Behind the scenes at the province's transportation management centre
CBC
It's a snowy day in December, one month after historic rain and flooding caused chaos on B.C.'s highway network, and government agencies are issuing further travel and weather warnings.
But at the headquarters of DriveBC, a communications arm of the Ministry of Transportation that provides up-to-date road and travel information for drivers province-wide, all seems calm.
Since a series of storms in mid-November destroyed at least 200 sites on highways in the Lower Mainland and the Interior, government officials have been constantly reminding travellers to check DriveBC's website and Twitter accounts for the latest road news.
Inside the Transportation Management Centre (TMC) in Coquitlam, on the edge of the roaring Trans-Canada Highway, are the people working around the clock to help make that happen. And while the stakes are high, the energy is almost peaceful.
DriveBC may seem like an automated system, but it has TMC agents like Aidan Mouellic, who are responsible for pulling the trigger on tweets and changing the messaging on over 150 electronic traffic signs province-wide.
"Everything to do with DriveBC or Twitter — it's people behind it … just trying to get everyone home safely," said Mouellic.
Three agents are on shift, working in almost total silence in a dimly-lit, Batcave-like control room alongside Ministry of Transportation contractors who are operating the lanes on the Lions Gate Bridge and the Cassiar and Massey tunnels.
An entire wall is covered in live feed from multiple traffic cameras beaming onto a massive screen. In total, there are about 380 highway cameras strategically positioned around B.C.
Not only are agents watching this feed, they are also constantly communicating with road maintenance contractors, Ministry of Transportation staff and first responders to make sure the information they are putting out is current and accurate.
"Because B.C. is so vast, if you tell someone that a highway is closed and you're wrong, you can detour someone for hours," said Porya Khorsandi, supervisor.
And sometimes, lives and livelihoods hang in the balance.
Mouellic's first day on the job was July 7, 2017, the same day the province declared a state of emergency as raging wildfires tore through the Interior.
"People didn't have ways out of their towns. Williams Lake, for a moment, had no highways that were actually open and people were reaching out and asking us, 'Where can we go?'" he recalls. "Unfortunately, we had to tell them to shelter in place."
An "overwhelming" experience, Mouellic said the fires did renew his faith in Twitter, which acted as a critical lifeline for people in need.
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This First Person column is the experience of Shannon Flaman, who lives in Red Deer, Alta. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.
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