Traffic flow increased along Whoop-Up Drive amid bridge repairs

The City of Lethbridge has added more lanes of westbound traffic on Whoop-Up Drive, to help increase the traffic flow and lessen delays.

Starting Wednesday, the city says between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. one eastbound lane will open to westbound traffic using the traffic diverters.

It’s similar to what was in place during the bridge rehabilitation project.

The city says it will allow a higher volume of traffic to cross the bridge during the busy afternoon.

Two-thirds of the Whoop-Up Drive bridge’s girders were damaged after a semi-truck hauling a large piece of construction machinery hit it and got stuck earlier this month.

The vehicle was driving to a construction site on the west side when it took a wrong turn into Indian Battle Park before striking the bridge and becoming stuck.

It took several hours for crews and engineers to remove the semi-truck, with metal supports being installed to ensure the bridge’s stability.

The city says it is still waiting for the assessments to come back.

“We’ve stabilized the bridge—we’ve put in supports under the bridge to make sure it doesn’t get any worse and then we’re going to start doing restoration work shortly, once we have the contract in place to make those necessary repairs,” said Jason Drenth, City of Lethbridge acting director of infrastructure services.

The city says one of the reasons bridge repairs aren’t happening 24-7 is because the type of high-strength concrete being used needs time to cure, often taking days to properly harden.

With files by Damien Wood, Karsen Marczuk