BANFF – The Town of Banff is trying to allay residents’ fears the pedestrian zone on Banff Avenue will hinder evacuation of residents and visitors from the south side of the Bow River in the event of a major emergency like a wildfire.
Many residents have voiced concern about the added congestion and delays the summer pedestrian zone will cause, especially as tourism picks back up, and worry about getting safely across the river from the south side where there are several tourist attractions like the gondola and hot springs.
Leslie Taylor, long-time Banff resident and former mayor and councillor, suggested evacuation procedures be looked at as part of the arrangements for an approved pedestrian zone because of a possible barrier to evacuation from the south side of the bridge.
“If we have the kind of warning time that the people in Lytton had, or the people in Fort McMurray had, will we be able to clear our main evacuation route quickly enough to make it workable?” she said during a December governance and finance committee meeting.
Banff’s emergency preparedness officials say two lanes across the bridge will be reserved for northbound traffic, one southbound lane will be maintained for emergency crews, and both the existing pedestrian bridge and one under construction form part of evacuation plans.
Silvio Adamo, Banff’s fire chief and director of protective services, said the No. 1 priority will always be the protection of life.
He used Fort McMurray as an example, where perfectly intact structures were bulldozed down to create fireguards.
“If it came to that, we would use a loader to push things down Banff Avenue and get them out of the way so we could open up an additional lane,” said Adamo in reference to street furniture and private outdoor patios set up for the pedestrian zone.
“Those are sort of the extreme tactics that we would potentially employ, and again it all depends on the circumstances of the emergency and the time that we had. We’ll think about every single option and measure that we can take in the event of an evacuation.”
In an emergency situation, evacuation would be a phased approach, similar to what was done in Fort McMurray in May 2016 as fire swept through that community, forcing the largest wildfire evacuation in Alberta’s history.
The wildfire destroyed approximately 2,400 homes and buildings, with more than 90,000 people forced from their homes. Another 2,000 residents in three communities were displaced after their homes were declared unsafe for reoccupation due to contamination.
“When I get a chance to do emergency orientation for council, I show a video of Fort McMurray and the evacuation there,” said Adamo.
“Vehicles are travelling with flames along the edge and we got all 92,000 people out of Fort McMurray without incident, except for one motor vehicle collision well past the community.”
As part of several points about the pedestrian zone, Taylor had flagged concerns about the growing traffic impacts as Banff’s tourism industry recovers.
She pointed to the Town of Banff’s own report that indicated the number of days with severe traffic congestion will triple and the number of days with moderate impacts will almost double.
“I experienced this myself visiting, unwisely, a friend in Middle Springs 1 on a weekday evening when I thought I was safe, and then finding myself spending 30 minutes driving from Middle Springs 1 to Grizzly Street,” she said.
“It’s quite something over there, at sometimes unexpected times.”
Adamo said he doesn’t see any significant issues with evacuation from the south side of the river related to the pedestrian zone.
He said under normal circumstances, the bridge has a single northbound lane, which contributes to long line-ups that go up Mountain Avenue at certain times of the year and day.
In an emergency evacuation, he said the bridge would have two northbound lanes and a single southbound lane for emergency access.
He added traffic could also be diverted along either side of Buffalo Street coming off the bridge as well as down Banff Avenue.
“When it comes to any emergency, obviously we’re going to take charge of that bridge area,” said Adamo.
“The pinch-point is always going to be at the bridge, not past it, and we’ll have plenty of access past the bridge even with the closure. We are prepared, but the bridge is the pinch point, not the pedestrian zone.”
Adamo said the existing pedestrian bridge would also be used as part of the evacuation plan for moving vehicles, as well as the second pedestrian bridge to be located across the river between Central Park and the recreation grounds once complete.
He said both bridges have the capacity for vehicles weighing approximately 17,000 pounds.
“In consultation with engineering when they were developing the plans for the second pedestrian bridge, I asked for it to have the same capabilities from a vehicle access perspective, which it has,” he said.
The biggest wildfire threat to the Banff townsite comes from the west and south.
Both the Town of Banff and Parks Canada have done significant WildSmart work around the townsite and in the Bow Valley to lower the risk of a wildfire taking out the town, including fire breaks.
A recent focus for the municipality has been more on its evacuation plans in the event of a wildfire, with additional work to establish mapping and where to establish check-stops or roadblocks.
Calculations estimate it would take about four hours to evacuate everyone from the south side, which includes tourist attractions like the gondola and hot springs on Sulphur Mountain.
“Council should be aware we obviously try to plan for the worst-case scenario always, but you know the notion that we would only have 30 minutes or a very short period of time to evacuate is probably based on the most extreme rockslide of Sulphur Mountain sort of scenario,” said Adamo.
“If a wildfire, which is one of our highest risks and probabilities, was to start very close to town, then it’s not going to be as large or as intense so we obviously would do everything we could to move people out of the way from the affected areas,” he added.
“But the likelihood is we’re going to have some time from a fire moving towards us to displace our folks. We do have very comprehensive plans for that and so I am very confident we will be able to move the residents and visitors if we did have an event.”
Councillor Chip Olver said one of the municipality’s priorities for 2022 is to work with residents on the south side of the river about emergency preparedness and evacuation planning prior to next year’s fire season.
“I think those who have concerns will feel some reassurance knowing that these things are priorities for next year,” she said.
