How is ice cleared from bridge cables?

A main concern when the Lower Mainland is hit with snow is of course how roads will look, but if you’ve lived through the winter in this region before, you may have also heard of ice bombs on many of the bridges.

While some crossings have automated systems that clear cables of snow and ice buildup, others require a physical person to scale up to the top and manually do this.

These people are called RATS — Rope Access Technicians. Some of the bridges that require these individuals to get to the top and drop collars periodically include the Alex Fraser.

Tom is a former RAT. A trained electrician, he tells our sister station JACK 96.9 that he kind of fell into the job.

“A friend of mine does the rock scaling stuff during summer and I was like, ‘Oh, maybe I’ll go get my toes in the water.’ So I went and got certified, and then the company I work for offered me that job as my first job and I was like, ‘okay, well, let’s chuck me in the deep end,’” he recalled while speaking with Drex and Lena Wednesday morning.

His job took him to the top of the Alex Fraser Bridge, work he admits was “quite an experience.”

“There aren’t many positions you get to hang over a highway at 6 o’clock in the morning during rush hour and look at all the cars below you,” Tom said.

“That was the first time I hung off of a bridge at that height and I tell you, I didn’t know if I was going to find it scary or not. But once you’re suspended, you kind of just forget and enjoy it.”

He says each cable has about 10 chain loops on it. His job was to drop each one.

“You go to the top of each rope and just undo the chain, let it slide, go to the next one,” Tom described, noting a crane at the top will then be lowered to bring the chains back up.

But how does a RAT get up above? Tom says it’s a bit of a trek, with a sort of ladder leading up, taking about “a good 15 or 20 minutes.”

“It’s a long old ladder to climb,” he said with a chuckle.

“You always want to go slower because you’re carrying a bag with some food, because, obviously, you’re on the bridge for 12 hours, so you’ve got warm clothing, a hammock so you can sit down if you need to and relax for a bit, because it’s not go, go, all the time.”

Of course, there are many safety considerations at play when anyone is on the bridge. For RATs, wind speed is one.

Tom says when the wind hits a certain speed, RATs can’t be out on the cables, for obvious reasons.

Roads have been a real mess Wednesday amid the latest snowstorm to hit the Lower Mainland. People are being told to avoid driving if possible.

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