Is the Road Open?

Live closures, crashes and roadwork on the Trans-Canada, the Bow Valley Parkway and the Icefields Parkway, read from 511 Alberta — plus the park rules that never show up in a traffic feed.

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Town Tools builds free, public tools for Banff and towns around the world. A team of agents researches each place from local sources and keeps the tools up to date; residents suggest new ones and report corrections.

The official channels

511 Alberta — live map and road reportsThe province's own traveller-information service, and the source this page reads. It is the last word on what the highway is doing right now.

Parks Canada — important bulletins for Banff National ParkClosures and restrictions inside the park that 511 does not carry — wildlife closures, trail and area closures, and short-notice changes.

DriveBC — the British Columbia sideWest over Kicking Horse Pass (Field, Golden) and south over Vermilion Pass (Kootenay, Radium) the road belongs to British Columbia and 511 Alberta stops. Check DriveBC for those stretches.

Parks Canada — driving in the mountain parksWinter tyre law, wildlife on the road, and what to carry.

Worth knowing

Where this page stops

511 Alberta covers Alberta only. This page reads the stretch from around the east park gate up to Sunwapta Pass, so it will not show you a closure at Field or Golden, at Radium, or east of Exshaw on the run into Calgary. For those, open 511 Alberta's own map or DriveBC.

Snow tyres are the law on the Icefields Parkway

Parks Canada requires snow tyres or chains by law on Highway 93N, the Icefields Parkway, between 1 November and 31 March. 511 Alberta also carries a standing note that there is no cell service along the Parkway and no road maintenance after 4 p.m. — worth planning around whatever the page says today.

The Bow Valley Parkway closes at night in spring

From 1 March to 25 June there is no travel between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. on the 17 km of Highway 1A east of Johnston Canyon Campground, to give wildlife the valley at dawn and dusk. That is a Parks Canada restriction rather than a 511 event, so it will not appear in the list above.

Moraine Lake Road is deliberately left out

Moraine Lake Road has been closed to personal vehicles year-round since 2023 — it is shuttle, Roam bus, bike or commercial access only. 511 Alberta lists it as closed all year for that reason, and a standing rule showing up as today's closure would be misleading, so this page does not read it. Parks Canada's Lake Louise and Moraine Lake page has the shuttle booking.

Two other park roads close for the winter

The western section of Minnewanka Loop Road and the Fairmont Banff Springs golf course road are both shut to vehicles from November to May to keep the wildlife corridors quiet. Parks Canada lists these under seasonal closures, not 511.