Whistler council to look at making Sea-to-Sky Hwy safer
Posted December 22, 2015 12:32 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
(NEWS 1130) – Have you found yourself gripping the wheel tightly on the Sea-to-Sky highway, or stuck moving more slowly than you’d like?
Whistler council is set to look into how to make the route safer and ease congestion as the population in that area grows, as part of a committee it has assembled to look into transportation issues relevant to its community.
“This is the transportation advisory group,” says Whistler Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden. “It’s a committee of the Whistler council. It will be looking at the overall transportation planning and many local and regional key stakeholders are part of the group. We just reinstated within in the last month. It’s got members of the community at large, it’s got members with specific expertise, like the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure. It will, over the course of the next few months, be looking at those transportation issues that affect our town, including safety of the Sea-to-Sky highway.”
Recommended improvements could take a variety of forms. It’s worth noting the provincial government is responsible for any changes to that highway and anything Whistler council does eventually recommend for the corridor will not be binding.
“Certainly barriers in those places, very few places, where there are no barriers may be something that we will be looking at,” says Wilhelm-Morden. “The ministry is undergoing a pilot project right now on the Sea-to-Sky highway, it starts in January, with variable speed limits. We will be monitoring how that pilot program will be working, and certainly that will have, hopefully, a positive influence on safety.”
On a highway where the weather can change in an instant, and with congestion expected to become more of an issue, Wilhelm-Morden says it’s time for her municipality to look into potential improvements.
“Especially the part between Squamish and Whistler,” says Wilhelm-Morden. “The conditions can change very, very quickly, going from black pavement to snow-covered road in a matter of minutes. This comes into significant play in the safety upgrades to the highway.”
Sea-to-Sky upgrades ahead of the Olympics have reduced crashes by 30 percent according to the province, but accidents still happen — and when they do, they can be devastating.
Two people have died in crashes on the highway in the last two months.
Whistler will make recommendations after the studying the issue for at least a year.
