Increased traffic congestion throughout the Columbia Avenue construction zone has some residents worryied about how emergency vehicles will get from one end of town to the other.
But Castlegar fire Chief Sam Lattanzio wants to reassure residents that, as far as the fire department is concerned, things are working quite well.
The Castlegar Fire Department (CFD) has a formal plan in place with construction contractor MarWest and the traffic control personnel in the construction zone.
The CFD has the ability to communicate directly with the Columbia Avenue traffic control personnel through a dedicated radio frequency.
Lattanzio said he is pleased with how the plan has worked out.
“This plan has worked flawlessly for all the calls we have had so far to the north end of town,” he said. “I would say that response time to scenes has not been impacted because of the excellent service MarWest and their traffic control personnel provide CFD. If I could, I would like to have them for all our calls.”
The fire department’s procedure is as follows:
If the CFD gets a 911 emergency dispatch to anywhere north of 18th Street during construction hours, command units will contact MarWest traffic control via radio to advise that CFD will be travelling through the construction zone.
Each CFD unit will then directly contact Columbia Avenue traffic control personnel advising them when they are crossing near 18th Street.
By this time, MarWest traffic control personnel have already provided a clear path for CFD units to drive through the zone.
Once the last CFD unit has cleared the zone, normal traffic will resume in the construction zone.
In addition, the fire department has access to other emergency routes around the construction zone, including the gated-off portion of Woodland Drive.
BC Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) also reports it has not experienced any problems around the Columbia construction project.
“BCEHS paramedics navigate through construction as quickly and safely as possible to transport all patients, with the support of our dispatch centres,” said BCEHS spokesperson Shannon Miller.
“When there is major construction work impacting a roadway, our dispatch centres are alerted. When our paramedics are operating in urgent conditions — with lights and sirens — through a construction zone they can be diverted with the help of dispatch.”
BCEHS also said that any ambulances seen sitting in traffic are not on urgent calls.
BCEHS district manager Doug Garland explained that when an ambulance is on a non-urgent call or is returning from a call, they wait in the traffic lineup with the other vehicles.
As far as the local RCMP detatchment goes, Sgt. Jason Olney says things have also gone well for them. He says police have been impressed with how alert and quick the flagging crew has been when police vehicles need to get through the construction zone.
