The Town of High River now officially has a flood gate across the Centre Street Bridge.

The Town closed the road Thursday, October 26, to test it out and it seems to work more or less perfectly.

High River's Director of Engineering, Riley McKerracher, says the gate itself doesn't take long to open or close, but if they're going to use it, it requires some planning.

"Overall it's probably somewhere between a half hour or hour process. The gate itself actually slides across in about two to two and a half minutes. But prepping the road and getting the vehicles out of the area is probably the most time consuming part."

McKerracher says they have plenty of safety measures in place to make sure the gate doesn't close randomly.

"We didn't want a gate that could be closed remotely, without having eyes on the location. We didn't want to be squishing cars or squishing pedestrians or something like that. So, when the gate closes, someone has to be physically on site and hold the button while the gate closes."

McKerracher says when the gate is open, there's a rail running across the middle of the road, so crews have a series of steel plates that cover the rail keeping it free of snow, ice and other debris so they can slide the gate across quickly and without issue if need be.