Sorry saw this...
Rock slide shuts Sea-to-Sky for five days
Stretch between Furry Creek Bridge and Lions Bay affected Staff Reporter,
The ProvincePublished: Wednesday, July 30, 2008
The Sea-to-Sky Highway between Furry Creek Bridge and Lions Bay will be closed for five days, the road blocked by a massive rock slide that happened around 11 p.m. Tuesday.
"Five days is probably a safe scenario," said Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon, who toured the slide site Wednesday. "The uncertainty is what we're going to find above and what we find on the road."
The rocks cover 75 metres of road and are piled about 10 metres high and is comprised of between 5,000 and 16,000 cubic metres of debris.
"It is actually a little awe-inspiring," Falcon said of the slide. "You literally had the face of a mountain drop off the bluff." A rockslide on Highway 99 has closed the road in both directions Wednesday morning. Global BC
Geotechnical engineers are on site just north of Porteau Cove, said Ministry of Transportation spokesman Dave Crebo Tuesday morning.
Crebo said crews need to be assured it's safe enough to get in and start moving the debris. How long that process will take is anyone's guess at this point, explained Crebo.
"Certainly it won't be anything imminent in terms of reopening," he said.
Crews had to wait until daylight to assess the situation. Helicopters are assisting in the evaluation, Crebo noted.
Views from a Global helicopter at daybreak showed enormous boulders completely blocking the road and significant roadway and train-track damage from the huge mass of falling rock.
It's unclear whether rainfall all day Tuesday triggered the slide.
Mike Cafferty of Perimeter Bus Line, which operates between Vancouver and Whistler, told Global News at noon that a 24-passenger coach heading to Whistler narrowly averted the slide.
Debris smashed several windows on the coach but it made it out without any further damage.
Travel on Highway 99 is highly limited, explained the RCMP.
Northbound traffic can travel only as far as Lions Bay. Southbound traffic can make it down to Britannia Beach. Furry Creek residents will be stopped at road blocks at Britannia Beach and officials will escort them into the community.
"We are asking everyone else to avoid the area," RCMP spokeswoman Const. Annie Linteau said in a release.
The Ministry of Highways is determining the stability of the rock face and the Canadian Coast Guard and RCMP air and police dog services are patrolling the area trying to determine if any vehicles were caught in the rock slide.
Falcon expressed relief that no one is believed anyone is believed to be trapped.
"Everything else is fixable, human lives are not," Falcon said.
Falcon said the stretch of road affected has been problematic.
"We've got a significant amount of rock bolting and rock scaling that was planned for this area," said Falcon. "This is going to accelerate some of that."
The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games isn't saying much about how the rock slide does or doesn't affect its plans.
"We are aware of the incident on the Sea-to-Sky Highway and support the Ministry of Transportation's efforts to clear the area as soon as possible ... We will defer any further comment regarding today's rock slide to the Ministry of Transportation," Irene Kerr, VANOC's vice-president of services and transportation, said in a statement.
"To mitigate any short-term transportation challenges between Vancouver and Whistler, athletes, officials and the majority of personnel required to stage an Olympic or Paralympic event in Whistler will be housed in the Whistler area so events will proceed on schedule," she added.
ARE YOU TRAPPED BY THE SLIDE? Have you had your travel plans disrupted by the road closure? E-mail us at
tabtips@theprovince.com with your story, or simply enter your comments below.
TRAVELLER OPTIONS For those who can't wait for the highway to reopen, other options do exist. Helicopters are available to be chartered for flights between Vancouver and Whistler or Squamish, noted Vancouver-based Helijet Charters in a news release.
For more information, that company can be reached at 604-270-1484.
The long route east on Highway 1, doubling back toward Whistler from the north, is also a possibility -- but those setting out should be warned that the trip will take about six hours.
(See the story at right for the alternate route from downtown Vancouver.)
it turns out that our OP is only "mostly" dead........ ElGordo