Pasco Road to Squamish Photo Gallery – Spring 2007The aerial view shows an overview of work at the site of the north junction near Pasco Road. The new Eagleridge section of the highway will connect with the existing highway north of this location. Crews continue to work on a series of retaining walls between the CN Rail line and the highway. These walls will form the foundation of the highway widening. Construction will rise up the steep slope in a terraced pattern, with back-filled earth walls rising to carry to relocated old highway and the new widened Sea-to-Sky Highway.
This aerial view of the Sea-to-Sky Highway 8 km north of Lions Bay shows how designers, engineers and builders have developed methods to build out over the steep slopes on the ocean side rather than closing the road to widen into the mountainside. On the lower left of the picture below the highway (the gray band) is a section of completed mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) wall, while in the centre crews are working on a new ‘half bridge’ structure. Half bridges support half of the lanes. Improvements through this section will result in four lanes with median barrier, and improved sightlines. The ground shots show footings for the half bridge and girders being placed
Beginning with this aerial view, the mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls north of Windy Point shown in the winter update had coping in place by mid March, and the first lift of pavement down in April. By late April, traffic was diverted onto the new 2 lanes of road surface and re-grading of the existing highway had begun.
The first sequence of pictures shows preparation of the highway for paving at Minaty Bay just south of Britannia Beach. Construction of the new Britannia Creek Bridge and highway improvements through Britannia Beach begins with crews placing girders on the new two-lane bridge. Bridge deck panels are then laid before steel rebar and concrete slab decking is poured. A waterproof membrane is added to this base before asphalt is laid. Note the plastic sheeting under the bridge, secured in place to prevent concrete or other material from dropping into the creek. The last photo in this set show highway improvements underway through Britannia Beach. The intersection at Main Street will be consolidated to provide a safer “T” intersection with more defined exit and entry onto the highway, with the introduction of acceleration, deceleration, and left turn lanes. A pedestrian and vehicle activated traffic signal will be installed to allow safe access to, and across, the highway. The existing highway will be widened to primarily three lanes.
One of the larger rock cuts on the Sea-to-Sky Highway Improvement Project is at Darrell Bay, located next to Shannon Falls. The aerial pictures show the size of the cut where nearly 80,000 cubic metres of rock will be removed. That’s the equivalent of over 500 railway boxcars of material. The removed rock is crushed by a portable crusher on-site, and some of it is being used for mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls on the other side of the highway, while some of the crushed rock will be hauled only about 1 km to be used as fill. The Darrell Bay cut is complicated by the adjacent highway traffic, the CN Rail line, hydro transmission towers and the 40-metre steep bluff.
Work continues on the Shannon Creek Bridge, as crews prepare the bridge deck for final asphalt. Sea-to-Sky Highway improvements through Shannon Falls Provincial Park include widening the highway to a four-lane divided highway with a separate left-turn lane for south bound access to the park. The last picture in this sequence shows the construction of a retaining wall, which, when improvements are complete, will carry a new north bound access to the park.
Work has been underway since early in 2007 on a new four lane bridge over the Mamquam Blind Channel in Squamish. This series of photographs show work on the piers and substructure for the first half of the bridge, to be completed this year. Traffic will then be directed onto the new surface, the existing bridge removed and work will then begin on the second half of the structure. The first two pictures show pouring concrete into steel piles, while the final shot is the wood piling—used to strengthen soil in case of seismic events.
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