The Killer Highway has been reborn.
Once infamous for numerous fatalities, rock slides, bridge washouts and slow traffic convoys that prompted high-speed, high-risk passing, the Sea to Sky Highway is now being called one of Canada's best-designed, most scenic drives.
In making that remarkable transition, it has become both an economic catalyst for the Squamish-to-Pemberton corridor and possibly the greatest legacy of the 2010 Olympics.
Formerly a snake of a road with one of the highest accident ratings in British Columbia, it is now a wider, straighter highway with median barriers and more open vistas. But it's still a mountain highway - and it can still be as dangerous as the drivers on it. There are also concerns about its impact on wildlife.
As Squamish RCMP Corporal Dave Ritchie drives the new road, now all but complete except for some landscaping and patch paving, he sees the breathtaking views and the wide curves that have replaced tight, dangerous corners.
The veteran traffic analyst, who has spent more than 30 years going to accident scenes, takes all that in, but he also sees the places marked by fading skid marks, or where pieces of shattered glass are overgrown by roadside vegetation.
"I do have reminders of accidents as I'm driving it, so you go through an area and you know so-and-so was killed there, or that young lady was killed here or that … a nice young girl lost control there," he said.
Some realignments in the $775-million Sea to Sky improvement project took out accident hot spots - such as Snake Hill and the Canyon - and some erased memorial markers placed at sites of fatal crashes.
But Cpl. Ritchie said the friends and families of those who died and the first responders still remember - and he hopes the general public will, as well.
"For the last few years, we've seen a great reduction in collisions, of course, because there's been so much construction. There's been multiple closures and lane changes and cones and all that, so the accidents have been down," he said.
"Now that it's improved we're seeing speed … is back up. I know looking [at]… the previous week, there were four accidents on the highway, all at the south end." Two were "total inattentiveness," Cpl. Ritchie said, and two were rear-enders at construction sites.
The number of crashes dropped by 80 last year from 2008, but the big improvement was in the reduced severity of accidents, with 110 fewer casualties, the lowest number in a decade.
Cpl. Ritchie praised the highway changes, saying the median dividers, enhanced sightlines, extra lanes and softer curves all make it easier for people to drive more safely.
"That being said, you are driving on a mountain highway that has varying grades, varying radiuses on curves, weather changes and you must drive accordingly," he said. "I think the highway is safe and I think safety is built into the highway. Our issues are going to be … with reducing [speed] and changing the attitude of drivers. And for that we need more enforcement."
Economic stimulus
For Squamish Mayor Greg Gardner, the road began to pay dividends even before it was finished. The new highway, which sweeps down to his community past the Stawamus Chief, where a new pullout gives drivers a place to watch climbers on the granite monolith, has drawn not only tourists but new residents to the small town, anticipating easier commutes to Vancouver and Whistler.
"We have had businesses say they have located here in the past few years knowing that the improvement project was coming. … We just had London Drugs open in our community. We've had large businesses like Wal-Mart and Home Depot open here. We have a large number of housing projects and a large number planned," he said.
"The direct impact, of course, is that it provides a much safer route. … It also decreases the travel time - and it is also a more scenic route, as a result, and that was an unexpected benefit," Mr. Gardner said. "I would say the highway is the most significant Olympic legacy."
He gets no argument from Laura Rizzo, vice-president of marketing at Solterra Group of Companies, which is developing the No. 1-selling new-home community in Squamish.
"You can compare it to how the Coquihalla opened up the Interior," she said, referring to the highway that dramatically cut driving time between Vancouver and the Okanagan Valley. "It has affected business along the Sea to Sky Corridor. It makes it easier to find trades [workers]and to bring up building materials. … In bringing in more commercial infrastructure, you bring in jobs, and for us, that means an increase in housing demand."
For Ms. Rizzo, who often drives from her office in Vancouver to Squamish, the commute is a huge improvement over the narrower road it replaced.
"I enjoy it much more. It's more convenient. It's less scary," she said. "It opens up a beautiful area of the province. Just driving that corridor - one side mountains, one side ocean - I mean, where else can you find a drive like that?"
That's the kind of endorsement Rob Ahola and the army of engineers and tradespeople who worked on the highway were hoping for. "I think it's worked out really well," said the construction director and consultant who helped oversee the project for the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure.
He said the highway presented lots of challenges to the main contractor, Peter Kiewit Sons Co., and he praised the company for meeting all the goals, on time and on budget. One thing that has surprised Mr. Ahola is the praise for the improved views. "It wasn't planned," he said of the way the highway, which was always known for its scenery, has opened vistas.
"I think most people are commenting on the southern end of it, from Horseshoe Bay to Squamish. A lot of the work we did in that area was widening to the water side. When we did that, we had to clear a lot of trees out … so people are seeing a lot more of Howe Sound," he said. "The other aspect is the new alignment near Horseshoe Bay. If you are heading north, you get a view up Howe Sound, which you never had before, and if you are coming south, you get a view of West Vancouver and Vancouver as you crest that, whereas before you were low down, with trees on both sides of the highway."
The enhanced views are a nice bonus - but the focus of the project was to improve safety and reliability. The highway was one of the first in Canada to be built to safety standards established using a new collision-prediction model developed on a seven-kilometre test section south of Whistler.
Safety, Mr. Ahola said, "was the driver for fixing the highway. Obviously, the Olympics were coming along and that was the catalyst to get the project going, but it had some of the highest accident rates in the province, and severity rates, too, not just fender benders but quite a few fatalities. In the nineties, for a five- or six-year period, there were 18 fatalities. So that was a primary goal for sure. … And on the reliability side, it was the rock slides and keeping the highway open. I think we've done pretty well on both those."
Not everyone, however, is happy with the new highway.
John Buchanan, an independent environmental researcher based in Squamish, has been studying wildlife deaths on the Sea to Sky Highway for the past few years. He's set up roadside cameras and is frequently called by the public when someone sees road kill.
Mr. Buchanan said not enough wildlife underpasses or overpasses were built in the Squamish area, and that there is no wildlife fencing to keep animals away from the road.
"There are a lot of bear kills, a lot of deer kills and a lot of these animals … will hobble off into the bush. That kind of incident never gets reported," he said.
"When deer … come to the centre divider, they get spooked and they can't make up their mind which way to go. They just kind of freeze in the headlights," Mr. Buchanan said. "I knew as soon as they put the centre divider in and increased the lanes from two lanes to four lanes … it's just going to become a ribbon of death for wildlife."
But Mr. Ahola said the Sea to Sky Highway was designed with animals in mind, too, and wildlife underpasses were built where animal corridors had been identified.
"And on a provincial perspective, the Sea to Sky doesn't rate in the top 20 for wildlife kills," he said. "So it's very low down in the incidents of animal kills."
He added that it will take a few years to gather data and get an accurate assessment - both for commuters and wildlife.
Mark Hume