HIGH RIVER, AB – The Town of High River will be testing the flood gate this Sunday, April 7 from 2 to 10 p.m. as part of its regular annual maintenance. Due to this, the Centre Street Bridge will be closed to both vehicular and pedestrian traffic during this time.
“Every Spring, from now on, we will be testing the gate in preparation for flood season,” says Reiley McKerracher, director of engineering, planning and operations with the Town. “We’re also using this opportunity to provide additional training to our staff.”
This will be the first time Town staff will operate the gate themselves since it was installed and commissioned last November. “The manufacturer will be on-hand to assist us, but we will be running the test from start to finish,” says McKerracher. “It’s a big day for us because we know this is what will help us protect the town, our residents and infrastructure in the future.”
Staff will be looking for any parts of the gate that didn’t fair well during the winter months, plus fine tuning each of their roles and responsibilities by running training exercises during the testing.
A detour route will once again be set up via Highway 543/498 Avenue East to help redirect traffic during the testing. The pedestrian pathway will also be closed during the testing. Pedestrians are asked to plan ahead or find an alternative route.
The Flood Gate is part of the Town’s ongoing flood mitigation strategy and infrastructure improvements and has been fully funded through the Alberta Community Resilience Program (ACRP) from the Government of Alberta and Long-Term Recovery Support (LTRS). For more information about the Flood Gate, visit highriver.ca/flood-gate.
