Section 4 Road Investigations

Weyerhaeuser, after purchasing MacMillan Bloedel’s holdings in British Columbia, engaged Landworks and a property administrator to review all its properties to ensure that agreements were in place for any utilities located on the company’s private land.
This project entailed a close scrutiny of maps of all the company’s holdings and the listing of all roads that might not have been gazetted or dedicated. Ministry of Transportation records, plans and files were then examined to determine if these roads had in fact been dedicated or if they were Section 4 (under the Highways Act) roads, where the travelled surface is publicly owned and the lands on both sides of the road are privately owned. The project also entailed identification and measurement of roadside utility lines.

The project was undertaken in four phases: Mid-Vancouver Island, Port Alberni Area, Central and Sunshine Coast, and North Island.

Where roads were confirmed to be Section 4 roads, these were investigated. If utilities were found to be located adjacent to the roads, the utilities were identified, photographed and their length measured. With the ensuing reports, Weyerhaeuser was then in a position to discuss the installations with the utility companies.
These road investigations required extensive and careful map interpretation, exhaustive research, familiarity with logging roads and isolated areas, and a great deal of liaison with local authorities.