Olympics construction

This is to certify that the folks in charge of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics are not taking a backward step to anyone.

Things are really hopping everywhere. Olympics construction is everywhere. It is obvious wherever you travel, be it one of the venues on the lower mainland or in Whistler village or all along the corridor from Horseshoe Bay to Pemberton.

The first thing visitors will notice when traveling from Vancouver to Whistler will be the amazing amount of heavy machinery in use as the 200 million dollar upgrade to the highway. The twinning of the highway is well underway. Huge piles of broken rock have been blasted out from the mountain sides. In the area along Lions Bay the highway is being built out on huge piles rather than blasting into the mountain. All of the many bridges are being twinned to enable traffic to cross the great many creeks that allow drainage from the mountain tops.

In many areas the highway is not only being twinned but many of the curves are being eliminated which should make the drive much safer. Solid rock is being blasted to eliminate hills and the broken rock is then trucked to fill in deep canyons.

Late in July a rockslide dumped huge boulders onto the roadway near Squamish. Fortunately no-one was injured. The Village of Whistler and the town of Pemberton were cut off for three days while work crews cleaned up the mess and repaved the roadway.

This event brought to light that although nearly everything has been done for a smooth event to take place, preparations must be made in case of a repeat. We discovered that the bridges crossing Cayoosh Creek are now being twinned as they were one way until now.

The Bobsled run is nearing completion. This is a major Olympics construction job that is taking place. The world of hi-tech reaches into the most amazing places. The run is made of reinforced concrete and embedded within is an artificial ice making system thus taking any guesswork as to weather there will be enough ice to cover the twists and turns of the run. The teams of bobsledders, luge and skeleton events will have perfect ice all the way to the finish lines.

Nordic ski events will take place on the huge area now under construction now well under way. These events will also feature Biathlon Skiing and Shooting races. The Biathlon is one of the most grueling races to be held. This very demanding sport requires a skier to ski wearing cross country skies and every once a while the skier must stop, lie down prone on the snow, fire a rifle into a target, all the while trying to slow down their breathing for accuracy.

The Nordic ski trails are going to take the racers over the exciting topography and will be a pleasure to see as these racers from all over the world compete for the medals very aggressively.