Highway moose detector down almost half the time, documents say

One of the wildlife detection systems set up on the highway in 2011 hasn't been working for almost half the time since it was built, according to documents released by the Newfoundland and Labrador government.

Safeguards of Canada Inc. built two systems — one on Salmonier Line and another just outside Grand Falls-Windsor — as part of a two-year pilot project aimed at curbing moose-vehicle collisions.

The project had an estimated cost of $1.5 million.

Documents obtained by CBC News under provincial access to information legislation show that the government has struggled with keeping the new equipment operational.

At the Grand Falls-Windsor site, the equipment has either been knocked out entirely or partially affected for 306 of the 648 days it’s been running.

The site on Salmonier Line has had some better luck with only 106 days with the system down.

The warranty, which was included in the initial cost of the project, has covered the additional cost of repairs, so mechanical issues with the system have not cost taxpayers any additional money.

The system was brought in as a pilot project in reaction to public outcry about moose-vehicle collisions, which can be often fatal.

Minister of Transportation and Works Paul Davis said he's not satisfied with the overall performance of the systems to date.

"[I'm] not at all [satisfied], and you have to remember as well when these projects were rolled out, when these systems were put in place in 2011, it was done as a pilot project to test technologies to test how successful they were and how much work was involved in operating and maintaining them," Davis said.

Davis said the provincial government was concerned with the number of operating problems, and requested Safeguards of Canada to do a full review of their system to resolve issues, resulting in both systems being down for months.

"We constantly heard reports of failures and not operating properly, so in January, in the case of the one in Salmonier and later for the one in central, I directed we shut this down — we shut this down until the provider, the independent company that provided the technology who was the successful bidder on it, had a good, solid hard look at the systems," he said.

Lucy Stoyles, chair of the Save Our People Action Committee, said she thinks a better solution to reducing the number of moose on the highways is to put up more fencing.

"They (drivers) wouldn't need to slow down, they could go 100 km/h because they wouldn't have to worry about a moose on the highway because the fence would stop the moose," Stoyles said.

According to Stoyles, drivers have heard about the system being down so frequently that even when it is functional, they don't realize it.

However, Davis said other provinces with a lot of fencing haven't necessarily decreased the number of accidents.

"My understanding in New Brunswick, where they have lots of fencing in different parts of the province, that they found that the end of the fencing in places there's been an increase in collisions … So I have to question, will that cause a greater risk for the travelling public?" he said.

Davis said he should be ready to make a decision next year about whether or not the detection technology should roll out in other parts of the province.

Below is what CBC obtained from the access to information request.