Major Sea to Sky Rock Slide

Fortunately it appears that there have been no injuries in what is one of the most significant rock slides to hit the Sea to Sky Highway in more than 10 years. Tuesday evening around 11:20pm approximately 16,000 cubic metres of rock broke free of the cliff side and crashed on to a section of the highway and the neighbouring rail line.

A bus was travelling by the site as the rocks tumbled down. The bus driver heard and saw the rocks starting to come down and sped up as much as possible. The bus managed to escape without injury to its' passengers although the bus lost most of its windows and received punctures to the vehicles shell.

Initial reports claimed the highway would be shut until mid- morning on Wednesday but further investigation moved that estimation to a couple of days. The most recent estimation of the clean-up period is up to 5-days rendering the road completely shut right through the BC Day long weekend.

This will undoubtedly affect countless tourists in addition to the businesses that are supported by them and raises questions regarding contingency plans during the 2010 Whistler portion of the Olympic Games.

Fortunately during the 2010 Games the athletes will be housed in Whistler but if a slide a other major disaster occurs spectators will be largely out of luck. The vehicular alternative to the Sea to Sky highway is reportedly nearly an 8 hour detour. Planes do fly into Pemberton (30 minutes north of Whistler) and Boats can travel right up to Squamish.

Bottom line... stay near events you plan to spectate and keep your fingers crossed that the Achilles heel of the Vancouver Whistler 2010 Olympic bid does not come back to haunt them.

More from the Globe and Mail.

Sea to Sky Highway Updates or BC Highways.

Photo Credit : Rowan Palmer

Pemberton Traffic Nightmare

The first annual Pemberton Festival went off without a hitch, well, mostly without a hitch. The only real concern at the massive music festival North of Whistler was the traffic associated with 40,000 spectators.

An extra 40,000 persons on a road is never easily coped with, especially when said road is under a significant amount of construction in anticipation of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver & Whistler.

The worst traffic hot spots were travelling through Pemberton from the festival grounds and also navigating the construction of Squamish, which is already a slow section on normal weekends.

LiveNation, who put on the festival, plans to host the event again next year, and will hopefully have smoother traffic flow through increased group transportation and the completion of the bulk of the Sea to Sky highway.

Streetcar in time for 2010

The City of Vancouver has a streetcar trial which they plan to be in trial operation by early 2009 running from the Olympic Village through to Granville Island on the Southern shores of False Creek (Phase 0 on image below).
In time it is hoped that this will become a permanent mode of transport with travel through to Science World. Some dream of the service continuing through to the Roundhouse in Yaletown & Gastown with an eventual extension to Stanley Park though the latter is a definite long-shot at this point.

The streetcar will be a great 2010 bonus for persons renting homes along the SEFC corridor.

VANOC : 400,000 Additional Cars Expected on Road by 2010

VANOC and the City of Vancouver expect roughly 400,000 more car trips during the 2010 Olympics. This figure is technically only about 15% more trips than normal for the City which normally has about 3M trips per day. The Greater Vancouver Metro Area normally sees about 6 million trips per day.

One thing to note is that the increased traffic will likely be centered around venues and the downtown area which could increase the percentage traffic increase in local areas.

Here's some highlights of VANOC's plans to deal with the increased traffic:

• There will be no parking at Olympic venues. Everyone attending will have to travel by bus.
• The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games will operate an almost parallel bus system that will essentially double TransLink's bus fleet on Vancouver roads.
• There will be dedicated bus services from downtown Vancouver to ski venues such as Cypress Mountain and Whistler.
• At certain hours, the Sea-to-Sky Highway will be a bus-only route, although the road will not be completely closed to local traffic.
• Vancouver will clamp down on residents of the Hastings Park area who usually rent out their yards for parking during big events.
• Some traffic arteries in the city will have Olympics-only traffic lanes.
• Simon Fraser University and the University of B.C. will shift and extend their spring breaks to coincide with the Games, reducing traffic and freeing up capacity on TransLink buses and SkyTrain.

Full article from Vancouver Sun here.

Completed Venue : UBC Winter Sports Centre

The first indoor venue to be completed is officially the UBC Winter Sports Centre. Finished 4 months ahead of schedule and at a cost of just under $49M the new 3-rink centre replaces an aging 4 rink venue. Most of the cost was bore by VANOC.

The facility which can seat 7500 persons will play host to sledge hockey, most women's ice hockey, and some men's hockey during the Paralympic and Olympic Winter Games in 2010.

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