New emergency protocols for Whoop-Up Drive
By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on November 17, 2023.
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. Follow @albeebHerald on Twitter 4
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