Long thought to be the Achilles heel of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic bid, tiny two-lane provincial Highway 99 traces a treacherous route as it makes its eponymous way from sea to sky along the inside coast of British Columbia.
Known as one of the more deadly stretches of road in the province, the route is often called ‘the killer highway’.
However, to many local residents and businesses, the Sea-To-Sky may in fact be a golden road leading to the 2010 Olympic Games.
“The day after the bid was announced, house prices jumped 15 per cent in the area,” says Squamish Chamber of Commerce manager Karen Hodson.
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| Karen Dyer photos, Business Edge |
| The often treacherous Sea-To-Sky has claimed many lives, so pre-Olympic widening and the addition of lanes are being welcomed as a safety measure. |
“A local builder had to turn off his phone at 3 o’clock that afternoon. He said he went from 12 houses under construction to a waiting list of more than a hundred.”
Others along the road to the Olympics initially took a cautious approach.
Resident realtor Dale Falconer has lived in the village of Lions Bay, north of West Vancouver, for more than 16 years, and has been selling local real estate for 10.
“Long before the Olympic bid announcement, I was hearing concerns expressed about the highway by both buyers and sellers. ‘Should I get out now before the bid is announced? Should I move in before construction begins?’ People were really worried,” Falconer says.
“To tell you the truth, I thought house prices might be adversely affected by the highway repairs, but now that things are actually under way, there seems to be very little impact.”
The highway is itself a marvel of technological engineering and geographical tenacity. It begins at Exit 0 of the Trans-Canada Highway, granting drivers a breath- taking panorama of the Tantalus Range and the Coast Mountains sweeping directly out of the deep, cold waters of Howe Sound. From there the highway snakes alongside the Sound (Canada’s southernmost fjord) before twisting inland to climb to the jagged heights of Whistler and on to points east.
Dotted with tiny communities, the first major stop on the northbound highway is Lions Bay. With a population of about 1,500 residents, it is one of the smallest municipalities in British Columbia. This village boasts a large number of commuters, and the Sea-To-Sky is the only route to local schools, doctors, groceries and gas for villagers.
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| Lions Bay resident realtor Dale Falconer initially thought house prices would be adversely affected by the road construction, but has noticed little impact. |
Currently, a one-kilometre section of highway just south of Lions Bay has been designated a test section in anticipation of highway upgrades prior to the Olympics. Falconer, who is based in Lions Bay, welcomes the upgrades. “Any time you improve the accessibility and the safety of an environment, property values go up. Once this work is finished, Lions Bay will be in even greater demand than it is right now,” he says.
The Ministry of Transportation (MOT) has chosen what it considers to be the section of highway with the most challenging upgrade requirements, and construction of the additional lanes in this small area is under way.
The province maintains a website and telephone access for residents and local businesses to keep tabs on expected delays and closures, and has pledged to keep these delays to under five minutes during daylight hours.
The test section is the first stage of what may turn out to be the costliest single element of the 2010 Olympic endeavour. Repairs to the Sea-To-Sky have long been promised by various provincial governments, but with the clinching of the 2010 Games, highway upgrades became a political priority for the first time.
Premier Gordon Campbell has announced that the $600-million project will be completed by 2009, with additional improvements to be phased in as required over approximately 20 years.
The project is expected to create 6,000 new jobs throughout the province as a result of economic activity generated along the corridor, and is also predicted to increase provincial GDP by $300 million over the period of 2010 to 2025.
Four possible options for highway improvements are being considered, with extensive community consultation taking place all along the Sea-To-Sky corridor. Public meetings continue to be held in the larger of the communities along the route, including West Vancouver, Lions Bay, Squamish and Whistler. The precipitous coastal terrain does not allow for a four-lane highway to run the distance from West Vancouver to Whistler, and the chosen option will have the highway varying from two lanes to four as the terrain allows, even accommodating a lane running along a portion of railway line during the height of the Olympics.
Fine-tuning of routes and construction techniques is still under way and discussion of the various options for highway upgrades is continuing.
As construction grinds into high gear on this already treacherous roadway, some businesses along the route are taking a wait-and-see approach.
Just ask Mountain Woman, also known as Lynne Cook. As owner and manager of Mountain Woman Cafe in the tiny community of Britannia Beach, Cook lives up to her name as she slings burgers and fish and chips to customers travelling up and down the Sea-To-Sky.
She’s typical of many merchants in this former mining town, originally built just before the turn of the 20th century and now home to 40 houses and the same number of mobile homes. A small commercial district forms a pull-out off the highway near the abandoned mine, now the site of the B.C. Museum of Mining. A number of tiny houses and shacks make up the commercial district, catering strictly to the drive-by tourist population.
Cook notes that the highway has delivered her customers over the years and construction or not, it’s how her customers will continue to arrive.
But she’s still not sure how the new highway will affect business, or if all four lanes will end up bypassing the old town.
If the province’s current plans for the highway play out, Cook says the town’s new owner – local developer McDonald Corp. bought Britannia Beach last year – has agreed to relocate the business district to have greater access to the new stretch of road.
While both the Olympics and a new highway are six years away, Cook’s business continues to flourish, even with current highway shutdowns. “Change is always hard and disruption is stressful for everyone,” Cook says. “But somehow we’ve got our local developer and the provincial government working together to keep the heart in Britannia Beach.”
She is hopeful that whatever change may bring, her tourist-based business will endure.
The Sea-To-Sky may be the only route to get tourists to Whistler, but it is also the only route home for the residents living along the corridor.
While change in the highway has been long demanded, it’s also viewed by some with trepidation. With only a single commuter route available, any upgrades or repairs mean closures for local residents.
The single twisted thread that connects the Sea-To-Sky communities is a tenuous link to the outside world and has a history of treating its users with violence. Debris torrents have washed out bridges and triggered landslides. Careless and tired drivers have caused carnage on the road. In spite of efforts by the MOT to limit such hazards, these events continue to plague the communities along the highway. A section of bridge north of Pemberton washed out in the floods of 2003 and the death toll as a result of highway fatalities continues to rise. Eight people died in less than a week on the highway last January.
The District of Squamish is roughly the half-way point in the journey between Vancouver and Whistler, and it is from there the Sea-To-Sky begins its climb away from the water and into the clouds. Highway concerns run high here, though most residents tend to blame the high speeds or careless drivers rather than the road itself.
Squamish resident Dee-Ann LeBlanc says that the highway upgrades are not really a worry, as driving the highway tends to be unpredictable regardless of construction. She and her husband Rob moved to Garibaldi Highlands, just north of Squamish, two years ago.
“The upgrades haven’t really been a concern for us,” says LeBlanc, an author and LINUX instructor. “Since we don’t tend to commute and we have to prepare ourselves for any amount of traffic, we tend to leave early regardless.”
Municipal support for highway upgrades is high. The Squamish chamber spearheaded an Olympic task force to support the bid efforts, with an eye to maximizing the long-term economic opportunities for the region.
North of Squamish, the highway leaves the winding coastline of Howe Sound and plunges inland to Whistler before carrying on to Pemberton, Lilloet and beyond, but the upgrades effectively end at the site of the 2010 Games.
Highway improvements began last April between Squamish and Whistler on the Culliton Creek to Cheakamus Canyon section of the route.
In spite of the inconvenience of the highway shutdowns, the tremendous support for the 2010 Games in Whistler find most business owners there supporting any and all highway improvements.
Whistler Mayor Hugh O’Reilly said highway safety and reliability upgrades “will add value to all our communities and help us deal with the issues of 2010.”
Whistler realty agent Agnes Hedller also believes the Games will give a boost to the area’s popularity.
“International recognition of Whistler, demographic trends and the lack of new developments due to an established building cap have created rising values and a strong market in Whistler,” she says.
“The 2010 Winter Olympics are just icing on the cake.”
Opinions may vary along the road, but with construction upgrades just under way on the only available route leading to Whistler, it still remains to be seen what benefits are around the corner for local businesses on this already-infamous gateway to the Games.
Web watch:
www.gtmconsulting.com/info/project_updates/travelling-sts.htm
