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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Everyone gets in and out of Banff on the same few highways, and one crash, washout or avalanche closure can turn a 90-minute drive into an overnight stay. This page reads 511 Alberta's live event list for the Bow Valley stretch — the Trans-Canada, the Bow Valley Parkway and the Icefields Parkway — so you can look before you set off.
The road through the Bow Valley is open, with roadwork and advisories.
511 Alberta lists 2 roadworks and advisories on this route. As of 29 Jul, 15:15.
Highway 1 (the Trans-Canada), Highway 1A (the Bow Valley Parkway) and Highway 93 (the Icefields Parkway north, and the road south towards Kootenay), from around the park's east gate to Sunwapta Pass.
| What | Where | Until | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Road conditionGeneral Information on HWY-93 All Directions Near HWY-1 Westbound. Activities: Drive with cautionBe prepared! There is no cell service on the Icefields Parkway and no road maintenance after 4:00pm. Snow tires are mandatory from November 1 to April 1. See https://parks.canada.ca/icefieldsparkway-wintermaintenance for more info. Commercial vehicles exceeding 4,550 kg require special permission to travel the Icefields Parkway. | — | Until further notice | 24 Jul, 19:46 |
| Road conditionGeneral Information on HWY-93 All Directions Near HWY-11. Activities: Drive with cautionBe prepared! There is no cell service on the Icefields Parkway and no road maintenance after 4:00pm. Snow tires are mandatory from November 1 to April 1. See https://parks.canada.ca/icefieldsparkway-wintermaintenance for more info. Commercial vehicles exceeding 4,550 kg require special permission to travel the Icefields Parkway. | — | Until further notice | 24 Jul, 19:44 |
511 Alberta is the live source — check it before you drive
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Checked 29 Jul, 15:15 (GMT-6). Road-event data from 511 Alberta, the province’s official traveller-information service. It covers Alberta only, so a closure just over the boundary in British Columbia shows on DriveBC instead. Events can lag the road, and a very new one takes a few minutes to appear.