New emergency protocols for Whoop-Up Drive
By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on November 17, 2023.
Herald file photo
City crews work to repair the damaged westbound lanes of Whoop-Up Drive earlier this year after a trailer being pulled by a truck flipped on its side.LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com
The City of Lethbridge has put in place new emergency protocols for Whoop-Up Drive.
An incident in June which had traffic at a standstill for hours following the rollover of a flatbed trailer being towed behind a west-bound truck, spurred the City to conduct a review of the emergency traffic protocol for Whoop-Up Drive.
The city says “the revisions aim to enhance emergency response procedures and ensure more efficient traffic management during critical and emergency situations. These changes are expected to improve overall safety and coordination along Whoop-Up Drive to ensure the movement of traffic during disruption.”
In a statement released to media Thursday, Director of Infrastructure Services Joel Sanchez said “these changes will provide better communication between internal stakeholders and will enable faster activation of this protocol whenever it is needed, regardless of whether an incident occurs within or outside of normal business hours. We have identified opportunities for improvements after the event on June 28, and we were ultimately able to use the situation for these needed improvements.”
The revised protocol provides two-way traffic on Whoop-Up Drive in the event one of the travel directions must be closed because of emergencies on the bridge deck or the approach lanes. It also provides maximum one-way movement in either direction across Whoop-Up in the event of a mass evacuation on either side of the city.
“Like any emergency management plan, this protocol is considered a living document,” says Greg Adair, Chief of Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services and Director of Emergency Management in the City release.
“Next steps include conducting a tabletop exercise on the activation of this protocol. Any learnings from this or subsequent exercises and incident debriefs will be used to continually improve the protocol to better ensure that it works when we need it.”
The June situation on Whoop-Up was made worse by a series of collisions after it on the Highway 3 river crossing, which reduced its capacity as a detour route when it was needed.
The situation caused traffic jams downtown leaving many residents stranded from reaching West Lethbridge for hours. Some residents drove to east to Coaldale and headed north, going home via Picture Butte rather than wait for Whoop-Up or Highway 3 to be cleared.
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Great to hear! Now are you going to fix the road, that bump that probably caused that driver to lose control after hitting it? There is no bump ahead sign and even in a small vehicle when you hit it you must be careful of staying in your lane, because the bump is while on a curve. The road has settled causing over the years and it has caused this. It is worse on ice!
I am also shocked to hear that you are still expanding housing into new areas on the westside, considering there is already a high volume of traffic and no near future plans of the third bridge. Most work on this side of the river already. But this city doesn’t believe in traffic flowing freely, they want start and stop traffic, creating more GHG emissions. The biggest emissions come from that!
They should think about bypassing Taber with the highway 3 twinning, and going around Taber and Lethbridge, using the highway as an interstate ( not stops ), so there are not all the traffic lights stopping traffic, including the Broxburn light.
Have you ever counted the number of semi trucks on highway 3, and if you are going west loaded, it is uphill and takes a couple of miles to bet back up to speed. That is a lot more emissions that are avoidable with planning.
Back to Whoop-up Drive: please fix that bump or put up warning signs and stop building there until you have a third bridge!
I certainly wish there was some better decisions made by the City of Lethbridge. There priority lists and “projects” seem nonsensical at times. Let’s get back to basics and leave the “fluff” projects when times r not so tough. Our downtown core problems of homelessness and drug addiction have not been solved, crime is on the rise. Snow Removal or lack thereof is still a huge problem on residential streets. These r just two of many. Focus on priorities of the citizens that live here and not “pie in the sky” items that may look good but don’t help anyone. We need a change in direction.