Parks Canada has installed an Avalanche Detection Network on the Trans-Canada Highway in Glacier National Park in British Columbia. The network will be the first of its kind in Canada and one of the largest detection networks in the world.

Monitoring instruments, located near avalanche paths along the Trans-Canada Highway in Rogers Pass, will use radar and infrasound technology to provide real-time avalanche activity information. The system will provide early warning of increasing avalanche activity. The goal is to promote faster response, greater safety for travelers and an overall reduction in highway closure time.

Parks Canada installed the detection system.Rogers Pass is at an elevation of 1,330 meters and records an average of around 10 meters of snow each year. When railways first used the pass in the 19th century, 31 snow sheds with a total length of about 6.5 kilometers were built. Snow sheds for the Trans-Canada Highway were built later, including large sheds in the early 1960s.

The new avalanche detection network is in addition to other measures already put in place, including remote avalanche control systems, which allow technicians to trigger explosives wirelessly for controlled avalanche mitigation. Workers also installed 2,200 meters of netting that hold the snow pack in place on mountain terrain where avalanches would most likely start.

The Avalanche Detection Network is being installed with an C$18 million ($13.36 million) investment through federal infrastructure funding. Previously announced funding includes C$77 million ($57.17 million) for Trans-Canada Highway avalanche risk reduction and safety improvements in Glacier National Park.

Those improvements include rehabilitation of existing static systems, which include dams or berms to catch or deflect avalanche debris as well as construction of earthen mounds to help prevent avalanches from reaching the highway. Structural repairs to snow sheds over the highway also have been made, along with the installation of LED lighting.

Parks Canada is responsible for more than 1,000 kilometers of highways that pass through Canada's national parks and national historic sites. In Rogers Pass, more than 130 avalanche paths affect the Trans-Canada Highway.