With the recent completion of a 10-km stretch between Furry Creek and Gonzales Creek, the upgrade of the highway linking Vancouver to Whistler for the 2010 Olympic Games has reached the half-way point.
The Sea-to-Sky Highway project, at a cost of more than $600 million, is slightly ahead of schedule.
The province announced Tuesday that 59 of the 100 kilometres of the winding and narrow highway have been widened and the dangerous short curves removed.
The upgrade to what has been dubbed by locals as the "Ski-to-Die Highway" is a cornerstone of the massive effort to ready the region for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
The old highway claimed dozens of motorists' lives over the years as the ski resort grew to become an international destination.
Approximately 13,700 vehicles travel between Horseshoe Bay and Squamish each day and 7,700 continue on to Whistler each day. There have been more than 300 collisions a year on the highway.
Premier Gordon Campbell told a news conference held along part of the completed section of the highway that the work is on budget and the highway will be ready for the 2010 Games.
The route is also being promoted as part of the "Hydrogen Highway," which will feature a network of hydrogen fuelling stations reaching from Whistler to the lower mainland and eventually into the United States.
Premier Gordon Campbell and his Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon arrived at the news conference in a zero-emission hydrogen-fuelled car.
In September, newly re-elected IOC head Gerhard Heiberg will lead a delegation from the International Olympic Committee to Vancouver for a review of all of the 2010 Games construction projects, including the Sea-to-Sky Highway.
