At a council meeting in July 1984, council member Terry Rodgers stated, “I am very much afraid someone is going to get killed there.” He was referring to the unmarked crosswalk on Highway 99 between the village site and the Whistler Golf Course. The unofficial crosswalk also connected Whistler Village to the Valley Trail system, and was heavily used. With no marked crossing, pedestrians and cyclists crossing the highway were often unexpected by drivers.
Not long before the meeting, Rodgers had noticed long skid marks near the crosswalk left by a large, dual-wheel truck.
Rodgers’ concerns about the safety of the crossing, which had no signs for either motorists or pedestrians, were widely shared. After a 1983 transportation study called for an underpass, the council of the day sent a letter to the Department of Highways, and WLC Developments Ltd. (the owner of the golf course at the time) promised to discuss the issue at an upcoming board meeting. When asked for the Whistler Question’s “Whistler’s Answers” features if they felt the area was safe, all three respondents said no.
According to Ron Winbow, the district manager for the Department of Highways, crosswalk lines were not an option because Highway 99 was an “arterial road,” and the policy on pedestrian crosswalks across highways was they were reserved for school purposes and were patrolled. Like the earlier transportation study, Winbow suggested the municipality build an underpass.
Despite worries about the safety of the unmarked crossing, it was another two years before an underpass was constructed. In February 1986, WLC Developments Ltd. called for tenders on the building of an underpass leading off of Whistler Way beneath Highway 99 and an 82-space parking lot near the putting green. The job was expected to cost more than $500,000 and be completed in time for the opening of the golf course on May 1. The parking lot was necessary as the lot where golfers had been parking, which also housed the trailers of the Whistler Medical Centre, was slated to become a hotel, with construction beginning that April. (The Whistler Medical Centre was relocated to the basement of Municipal Hall.)
Construction of the underpass was underway by April. Because the highway had to be temporarily diverted and a road built to run parallel, the construction timeline was pushed back to ensure the diversion was not in place during the 1986 World Cup races in March.
The project was delayed when work stopped in early May after it was found the soil under the underpass footings was too soft to support them. Though soil testing was carried out, it took place in January when the ground by the road was frozen, and so only the soil by the parking area was tested. Though the parking lot was completed, it could not be accessed until the underpass was complete.
Finally, in September 1986, the underpass connecting Whistler Village to the Valley Trail and the Whistler Golf Course was completed, a few months behind schedule and about $40,000 over budget. With two lanes for vehicles and a raised sidewalk serving as the Valley Trail, the underpass continues to be a much safer approach to both amenities for pedestrians and cyclists (apart from a few incidents with vehicles that proved to be taller than their driver expected).
