We regret to announce that our colleague and dear friend, Bill Wong, has passed away.
Bill was one of the original founders of Binnie’s Transportation Division in 2002, and he worked at Binnie until his retirement in 2012. Prior to joining Binnie, Bill worked at the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure for over 30 years.
Transportation Division Manager, Maurizio Ponzini remembers Bill:
Bill played a vital role in the early successes of the Transportation Division, and in building the division… Bill was a great person to work with. He was passionate about his work, and he excelled as a highway designer and CAiCE operator. At work he always maintained a friendly attitude and did his best to help others. He took time to coach and train his coworkers at Binnie, and he also provided training for Ministry staff during his time at Binnie.
Bill contributed to many successful projects at Binnie, including improvements to the Sea to Sky Highway, the design of Cariboo Highway 97 widening near Williams Lake, the concept design of Callaghan Valley Road in preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics, the realignment of Highway 19 near Port Alice, and the realignment and widening of Highway 7 in Mission. On the Sea to Sky Highway Improvements Project, Bill completed a significant part the design of the preliminary alignment from Horseshoe Bay to the Squamish Parkway.
Senior Highway Designer, Keith Tompkins has known Bill for 39 years:
I started working with him in 1976 with the Ministry of Highways Design and Survey Branch in Penticton. After the big layoffs of the design staff in 2002, Bill retired and Gebre and I came to Binnie and formed the Transportation Division. As soon as we started picking up projects we soon realized that we needed Bill’s expertise as a CAiCE designer to fill out our initial team. The three of us had worked on many projects together in the Ministry and we knew how talented and valuable Bill was.
Bill always had a positive attitude and was a pleasure to work with. He was highly regarded by senior staff [at] Binnie. He was instrumental in training junior staff to be proficient in CAiCE… One of the reasons he was successful in training junior staff was because he was a very patient person and was eager to pass his knowledge along.
One of his goals before he retired was to do his part in ensuring that the Division was successful for the years to come and that the people he left behind could feel secure. Bill was not only a co-worker but a good friend to many of us and he will be surely missed.
Pictured above: Don McKillop, Sharon Chiang, Gebre Libsekal, Bill Wong, Keith Tompkins, Jeff Shi
This photo of our Transportation Division staff was taken on February 2, 2011, upon being named as a Finalist for the Ministry of Transportation Deputy Minister’s Award for Road Design and Contract Preparation. The award recognizes the team’s work on the detailed design of Highway 97 from 148 Mile to Likely Road. Bill Wong was the CAiCE Design Technician for the project; he designed 3.5 kilometres of highway through challenging rural and urban areas.