Steven Hill
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Work on the Sea to Sky Highway is scheduled to begin in Squamish during the week of Feb. 13, on either side of Industrial Way."This is work that is being done in support of the Business Park road works," said Peter Milburn, executive project director of the Sea to Sky Highway Improvement Project. "This was initiated by the District of Squamish."
Beginning Feb. 13, crews will start work on both sides of a 1.4 km section of Hwy. 99 between 700 metres south of Centennial Way and 900 metres north of Industrial Way.
The work is being done to aid the District in constructing a new access road approximately 500 metres north of Industrial Way for a shopping complex in the Business Park, which will include Wal-Mart.
This particular section of the highway will be widened to accommodate an intersection and lane configurations.
"It will be four lanes and in all the four-lane segments there will be some sort of centre divider," said Milburn. "It may not always be the median barrier. In some of the urban sections it may just be a raised curb section, but there will always be a separation between the traveled portions of any of the four-lane areas. "
After the right-of-way is cleared of vegetation, crews and equipment will remove topsoil down to the hard layers of competent ground. Embankment material will then be hauled in and piled to a depth of 1.5 metres above the future roadbed for pre-loading."It has to settle for six months or so," said Milburn. "It will be about two or three months to get the work done, and then that period of six months for it to settle. Then remainder of the will take place after that."
The clearing and hauling operations will occur between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
"There should be very limited impact," he said. "There will be traffic control people letting trucks in and whatnot, but there should be limited disruption."
Milburn said the best place to get accurate information on the highway project was to click to www.seatoskyimprovements.ca. "As things evolve we keep up to date information on there about traffic and consultation issues," he said. "Your one-stop shop for everything about the project."
