Avalanche mitigation spaceships will be used on Colorado mountain highways.
The egg-shaped devices lined in a row in the parking lot at the Eisenhower-Johnson Tunnels loom like spaceships getting ready for liftoff.
“Looks a little like the CDOT space force this side of the road,” said winter operations manager Jamie Yont. “These are our Gazex exploders, we have them for avalanche control around the west side of the Eisenhower Tunnel.”
The avalanche mitigation spaceships actually have no propulsion, they are taken up to mountain ridge tops by helicopter. There they are connected to towers from which a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen fill a chamber. The mixture can be remotely sparked to cause an explosion that triggers avalanches to keep roads safe.
CDOT has 16 spaceships: 12 at the Eisenhower-Johnson Tunnels, two on Berthoud Pass and two on Wolf Creek Pass.
They have been using the relatively new technology for a few years. They putting them in place in November and then bring them back down in May.
“It’s relatively new technology,” said Yont. “… we have had them for four or five winter seasons.”
A Seward Highway avalanche closed the road for much of the day Friday. It was between Bird Creek and the Portage turnoff. The avalanche severed the only road access between Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula for more than eight hours.
The Seward Highway avalanche hit at Mile 91.5 and the debris on the roadway was up to 15 feet high in spots, said a spokesperson for the DoT. The highway reopened around 2 p.m. but drivers should remain cautious.
“Travel is going to be wet and slick and bumpy. They’ve cleared all the snow but it’s definitely not down to dry highway measures by any means.”
Crews set off artillery to trigger 20 other avalanches along the highway on Friday. Also on Friday, several snow slides closed the Old Glenn Highway near the Old Knik River Bridge.
Farther north, snow slides near Summit Lake closed the Richardson Highway from mile 186 to 218.
The Hatcher Pass Avalanche Center also warned of very dangerous avalanche conditions in the area. It issued an avalanche warning early Friday, and it says the Hatcher Pass Road will be closed at mile 11 through the weekend due to avalanche activity.
National Weather Service meteorologist Michael Kutz said Anchorage has been having one of the wettest years on record so far. Snowfall this February is nearly three times higher than average, and rainfall this year is more than four times above normal, Kutz said.
Seward Highway Avalanche
Rain and Snow in Anchorage
Rain and snow have been falling in Anchorage and other areas of Southcentral since the beginning of the week. Which has led to treacherous road conditions in parts of town. Areas of the Mat-Su have been hit with heavy snow. Power to thousands of homes has been knocked out.
As of Friday evening, about 300 homes still did not have power. The Mat-Su school district canceled in-person classes on Friday for the third day in a row due to road conditions and winter weather.
Jan 20 – British Columbia is rolling out the artillery and bombs for avalanche bombing. There have been closures on some major roads for the first time in decades as the province grapples with record snowfall and rain.
The province, third-largest by population, uses helicopter avalanche bombing, remote-triggered explosives, and howitzers to keep roads open. But nonetheless critical routes to Vancouver are being disrupted by avalanche control.
Extreme weather, including November’s torrential precipitation, a deep freeze in late December and an early January thaw, has weakened the snowpack. Mountain slopes are more prone to avalanches that can release without warning.
Avalanche bombing requires closing sections of roads while teams use explosives to pre-emptively trigger slides, which prevents the snowpack from becoming deep and unstable.
Record amounts of control actions
A section of Highway 1 through Fraser Canyon northeast of Vancouver needed avalanche control for the first time in 25 years.
On Highway 99 north of Vancouver avalanche control actions are three times the seasonal average. Some paths have produced avalanches big enough to hit the highway for the first time in over a decade.
Avalanche bombing in Allison Pass further south on Highway 3 has also been above average.
These highways were all damaged in November by floods. A busy avalanche control season is putting further strain on resources. The Coquihalla Highway near Hope just reopened on Wednesday. And record snow along with avalanche risk delayed repairs to Highway 1 through the Fraser Canyon.
Rogers Pass
Further east avalanche teams in Rogers Pass, which runs below 135 slide paths in Glacier National Park, are dealing with more snow than usual. Control missions are also above average.
Approximately 3,000 vehicles traverse Rogers Pass every day in winter. A major Canadian Pacific rail line runs along the highway although it has a long tunnel under the top of the pass.
Rogers Pass avalanche bombing involves artillery soldiers who are stationed in Rogers Pass in winter. They use a howitzer to fire shells into loaded avalanche paths along the highway.
“Our goal is to bring down as much snow as we can and bring the hazard down to a point where it’s safe to open the highway,” said Jim Phillips, acting avalanche operations coordinator for Parks Canada.
The Rogers Pass program has been running since the highway opened in 1961. Before that, and before they built their tunnel, CP trains ran a high risk of deadly snow slides. One killed 62 railway workers in 1910.
So far this winter the team has fired 333 howitzer rounds, produced 197 controlled avalanches and closed the highway for 43 hours over seven separate days.
Helicopter Avalanche Bombing
Phillips said his team also uses heli-bombing and remote-trigger systems to set off detonations, and spends C$600,000 ($480,346) a year on explosives alone.
“It’s a balancing act. You want to keep traffic moving and minimize closures, but also minimize risk to people using the transportation corridor,” he added.
Avalanche control is typically needed until late April or early May.
November 22, 2019. MCpl PJ Letourneau/Canadian Forces. Avalanche bombing in Rogers Pass.
Heavy snowfall crippled normal life in tribal Lahaul and Spiti district today. An Atal Tunnel avalanche occurred on the Manali-Leh highway but no loss of life or property damage was reported.
Due to heavy snowfall in the region yesterday, the threat of snow avalanche had been looming on the Manali-Leh highway. Between the Solang valley and Keylong in the Lahaul valley.
100-m stretch hit
BRO officials said snow avalanche covered a 100-m stretch of road near the South portal of the tunnel.
The snow avalanche was 265 cm high, which has blocked the highway completely even for emergency vehicles between Manali and Keylong.
The BRO has pressed its workforce and machinery into service
Site of the Atal Tunnel Avalanche, Jan 2021
According to sources in the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), a snow avalanche has covered 100-metre stretch of the highway. It was near the South portal of the Atal tunnel on the Manali-Leh highway. (MSP-12). The snow avalanche was 265 cm high. It blocked the highway completely, even for emergency vehicles, between Manali and Keylong.
The BRO authorities have pressed into service its workforce and machinery to clear the highway for traffic movement.
According to the report of the District Disaster Management Authority, Lahaul and Spiti, 35.65 cm of fresh snowfall was reported at Sissu. At Jispa it was heavier at 38.01 cm. In Udaipur 10.16 cm of snow was reported during the day.
Due to the snowfall, traffic movement in Lahaul and Spiti came to a standstill. The residents of the Lahaul valley were cut off from the rest of the state after the road beyond the Solang valley towards Lahaul was blocked.
The Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE), Manali, has issued an avalanche alert for the coming days. As a result, the deputy commissioners of Kullu and Lahaul-Spiti have issued an advisory for common public to avoid venturing into snowbound areas.
The movement of tourists has been restricted towards the Solang valley from Manali beyond Nehru Kund.
The body of a second snowplow driver has been found after an avalanche in Asturias (Spain) on New Year’s Day.
A search was launched after two snowplow operators were buried in snow. It occurred close to the port of San Isidro in Aller at around 3.30pm.
The body of one of the men was found at around 11.30pm on January 1. The recovery followed several hours of rescue operations involving the Guardia Civil and firefighters with canine units.
And this morning (Saturday, January 2), members of the Military Emergency Unit found the lifeless body of his colleague.
A 46-year-old man was also injured in the avalanche in Asturias. He broke a leg and several ribs. It’s believed he may have been trying to help the two victims.
La Braña hotel manager assists
The 46-year-old man was rescued by the manager of the nearby La Braña hotel. He said he received a call from some males who were 50 meters ahead of the avalanche, “safe and secure” but trapped.
They said they had seen a specialized vehicle in front of them, at a small distance, but that “a very big dust cloud” arrived and they lost sight of it.
Cordero feared the worst so he and his brother got in their SUVs. After four kilometers on a road covered by “five feet of snow”, they found the white mass and a van on its side.
Below was the wounded 46-year-old man, “on the verge of fainting from the cold”.
He told them the two men had got out of the snowplow because the chimney that expels snow had got stuck minutes before the avalanche buried them in snow.
“Worthless” avalanche defenses
The hotel manager said residents have been fighting for 20 years for improvements on the road to tackle the “terrible conditions” in the winter, arguing the avalanche barriers in the area are “worthless”.
Soldiers were clearing snow off a road near a military base when an avalanche in Turkey hit them. The avalanche was in the country’s southeastern province of Hakkari, the Defense Ministry said on Sunday, December 27.
The statement said two soldiers were trapped in the avalanche. One of the soldiers was rescued and taken to the state hospital but did not survive. Idris Akbiyik, Hakkari’s governor, said the soldier was seriously wounded and succumbed to his injuries despite all medical interventions.
Akbiyik said that 37 specialist personnel and gendarmerie troops were still working to rescue the other soldier on Sunday. The body of that soldier was recovered from the avalanche on Monday. Which raised the death toll from the incident to two.
The local governorship said the body of the second soldier was found at 9.30 a.m. local time (0630GMT) during a search and rescue operation. It was conducted with the support of a drone, rescue workers, commandos, and rescue dogs.
“May Allah’s grace and mercy be upon our martyr. We extend our condolences to his grieving family, the Turkish Armed Forces and our noble nation,” a statement by the governor’s office said.
MANALI: A snow avalanche on the Manali-Atal tunnel highway beyond the Solang valley blocked the highway for nearly one hour on Sunday evening. Border Roads Organization (BRO) cleared the avalanche debris, after which the highway was opened. Fortunately, there was no vehicular movement when the avalanche hit the highway.
Tourists are not being allowed to go towards Atal Tunnel as the area has received very heavy snow. Only local residents are being allowed to use the Tunnel.
Tourist movement in Solang valley is restricted. The area between Solang and Atal Tunnel is prone to avalanches. Avalanche control structures are proposed to be built at some high-risk zones but only two such structures have been built so far.
Snow and avalanche study establishment (SASE) issued avalanche warning for five districts of Himachal.
The heavy snows of the past few storms mean the time has come for the annual North Cascades Highway closure in Washington state. WSDOT announced the closure Monday as snow has filled the avalanche chutes that line the highway, which pose a safety risk for drivers and road crews.
The seasonal avalanche closure currently begins at the Ross Dam Trailhead on the west side and Silver Star Gate 37 miles away on the east side. As the snow accumulates this fall and winter, the closure will extend a few more miles in each direction.
The earliest closure was on Oct. 17 in 2003, and the latest “closure” was in 1976 when so little snow fell the pass didn’t need to close that winter. That is the only time that’s occurred since 1972. In the winter of 1989, it didn’t close until Jan. 3, 1990.
Hikers, skiers, snowmobilers and other recreationalists can access the closed portion of highway during the winter season. Users should park in designated parking areas to allow plow drivers the space they need to clear snow around the closed stretch’s access gates.
