VANCOUVER, British Columbia The 2010 Winter Olympics dont start until mid-February but road closures in preparation for the games began this month.

First Avenue, from Quebec Street to the Cambie Bridge, and the seawall outside the Vancouver Olympic Village were put behind fences.

The rest of the phased road and closures run Jan. 1 to March 1, with bans on parking and stopping in curb lanes on the citys busiest streets from Feb. 4 to March 1.

Those lanes will be restricted to security vehicles, buses and cars with Vancouver Organizing Committee-issued vehicle access and parking permits.

Major street closures include Abbott from Expo to Keefer (Jan. 4), Quebec Street (Jan. 15), Renfrew from Hastings to McGill (Jan. 24), Canada Place and Waterfront Road (Jan. 27), Expo and Pacific (Jan. 29) and Midlothian near the Vancouver Olympic Center (Feb. 1). Both viaducts close Feb. 5, a week before opening day.

During the games, Granville from Smithe to Cordova, Robson from Bute to Beatty, Hamilton and Mainland between David Lam Park and Georgia and Beatty between Smithe and Dunsmuir will become pedestrian-only corridors.

The east end of False Creek will be fenced. The northern half includes B.C. Place Stadium and GM Place. The southern half includes the Vancouver Olympic Village.

Commercial vehicles will be steered to temporary routes Feb. 1 to March 21.

No permits are needed in downtown Vancouver, but residents of Whistler, B.C., along with hotel guests, workers, commercial vehicles and through traffic will need passes to travel through an Alice Lake checkpoint on the Sea-to-Sky highway northbound from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Feb. 11-28.

From Feb. 4 to March 1, two Sea-to-Sky lanes will be northbound and one southbound in the morning. In the afternoon, itll be two southbound and one northbound (from Squamish).

A fleet of 32 snow plows will be deployed Feb. 1 to March 2 on the highway. Eight heavy and medium-duty tow trucks and five "incident response units" will be on-call to clear wrecks from the Lions Gate and Second Narrows to Whistler.

For ticketholders to snow events, first-come, first-served online bus reservations begin Nov. 24 for the mandatory $25 round-trip to Whistler and $12 round-trip to Cypress. The price doubles Jan. 4.