With other major highways in B.C. still impacted by last month’s floods, Whistler has been busier than ever before.
Traffic counters on Highway 99 at Brio recorded record numbers of vehicles in November, averaging about 25,000 cars a day.
“We exceeded the traffic volumes from 2018 [and] 2019, which was a bit surprising,” said general manager of infrastructure James Hallisey at the Dec. 21 council meeting, noting that the normal average is about 20,000 cars a day (10,000 in each direction).
“With that trend, we are right back up to our peak volumes, which is quite a contrast from what we had back in April, where we were only about 60 per cent of our peak volumes for that time of year.”
The increased traffic combined with inclement weather has led to several traffic accidents of late—including five on Dec. 20 alone—and the Resort Municipality of Whistler has been in contact with the RCMP about issues on the highway, said general manager of corporate and community services Ted Battiston.
“My understanding at the moment is we do not have any formal [winter] tire checks scheduled, but I can look into that to see if there’s anything further,” Battiston said in response to a question from Councillor Cathy Jewett, noting that winter-tire checks impede traffic, and tend to take place earlier in the season.
As it relates to other issues like line repainting, plowing and salting during big storms, the municipality is also in regular contact with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure and its highway contractors, Hallisey said.
“We did actually have a good meeting with both [of them] last Thursday and talked specifically about some of their responses during emergency situations, and I think there was pretty good progress made on that call,” he said. “There was a more direct means of communication discussed, and that new number has been shared with our incident responders … so that should speed up that process.”
