A piece of heavy equipment caused damages to Whoop-Up Drive on Aug. 6, and crews are working to determine the extent of damages. (Photo: Darryl Watts)

By David Opinko

Work to assess Whoop-Up Drive damages ongoing, City says it’s safe to drive on

Aug 7, 2025 | 1:28 PM

UPDATE: LPS charges truck driver who damaged Whoop-Up Drive

The City of Lethbridge says crews are hard at work trying to determine the extent of damage to one of the two major routes across the coulees.

Just after 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, August 6, a flatbed trailer was transporting a piece of heavy equipment underneath the Whoop-Up Drive bridge on Botteril Bottom Road South when it got stuck.

That resulted in the full closure of Whoop-Up Drive for a few hours before partially reopening to traffic in both directions.

READ MORE: Whoop-Up Drive temporarily closed in both directions (August 6 article)

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Joel Sanchez, Director of Infrastructure Services with the City of Lethbridge, says crews from Volker Stevin and AECOM were already in the area conducting bridge rehabilitation, so they were able to start assessing the situation right away.

He explains that the underside of the bridge was damaged, but at this time, it is too early to comment on the extent.

“We’re just taking the pictures and also doing the measurements and the assessment in order to send that back to one of the persons that is involved, who’s well-recognized in North America on the bridge side. He’s going to be involved,” says Sanchez.

It is unclear how long it will take to complete the assessment, but Sanchez says that the report will help determine what repairs are necessary, how long it will take to complete them, and how much it will cost.

He assures that it is safe to travel on the bridge, adding that supports have been installed near the site of impact as a precautionary measure.

“The lanes that we have open on the bridge [are] safe,” says Sanchez. “We’ve taken all the measures that we can in order to ensure that visual inspections and even some different measures are being put in place to assess daily what the progress is and the damage that is present under the bridge.”

The City of Lethbridge has made the following traffic adjustments to traffic flow on Whoop-Up Drive:

• The loop from northbound Scenic Drive onto Whoop-Up Drive will be reopened
• Westbound 6 Avenue into Whoop-Up Drive will be reopened
• There will be zipper merge locations for westbound traffic, as motorists from 6 Avenue and from the northbound Scenic Drive offramp will merge
• That traffic will then merge with traffic from the southbound Scenic Drive offramp
• To increase capacity and reduce delays, we are also adjusting eastbound Whoop-Up Drive lanes by moving the inside lane closure closer to the bridge
• Both eastbound and westbound Whoop-Up Drive lanes will be fully opened after the bridge decks in each direction

See this video for reminders on how to properly navigate through a zipper merge.

Vehicle access south of Botteril Bottom Road South is closed for the time being.

Bridge maintenance work continues on Whoop-Up Drive, which is set to continue until the end of September. Traffic delays are to be expected.

READ MORE: Whoop-Up lane closures starting next week (July 15 article)

READ MORE: ‘Significant increase’ in illegal U-turns due to Whoop-Up construction: LPS