SEA TO SKY HIGHWAY
The Sea to Sky highway project was a key component for the 2010 Vancouver/Whistler Winter Olympics.
Client: Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure
Location: Highway 99, BC, Canada
Project Type: Transportation
About This Project
In the spring of 2005, the BC Ministry of Transportation awarded a $600M contract for the Design Build Finance and Operation (DBFO) of the Sea to Sky Highway #99 upgrade project. ISL was an integral component of the project consortium, providing the highway design for two of the nine segments of this 60 km mega-project. The first 6 km segment runs from Porteau Cove, past Furry Creek Golf Course to Minaty Bay. The second 7 km segment runs from Murrin Park, past Shannon Falls, and terminates at Stawamus Chief Park. The highway design involved upgrading from a variable speed two lane rugged mountain terrain rural arterial undivided highway to a 4-lane rural arterial divided highway with a consistent speed profile. The design assignment also included three frontage roads, eight parking lots, a round-a-bout, several stop condition intersections, and a signalized intersection.
ISL integrated and coordinated with the DBFO team, including the Project Management group (Hatch Mott Macdonald), the Prime Contractor (Peter Kiewit Sons), Operations and Maintenance contractor (Miller Capilano) as well as a wide array of subconsultants. To achieve success, the ISL team maintained a continual and open dialogue will all members of the DBFO team, consistently meeting project deadlines, subsequently
enabling the rest of the DBFO team and Ministry of Transportation to provide scheduled and timely feedback. ISL was aggressive, conscientious and diligent at rooting out problems and providing optimized solutions that balanced highway safety, mobility, and costs.
The Sea to Sky highway project was a key component for the 2010 Vancouver/Whistler Winter Olympics. The highway will be a showcase for the DBFO process, incorporation of “Context Sensitive Design”, and integration of “Collision Modification Factors” used in safety and mobility models. Challenges that were resolved included: integration with several bridges; split grade alignments; retaining walls; sliver rock cuts and fills, storm and snow-melt runoff events; environmentally sensitive sites; traffic flow; provincial parks; CN Rail; public consultations; and construction staging.
The success of this project was contingent on the implementation of stringent quality control measures and the integration of input from the full array of DBFO disciplines.