CDOT Colorado Transportation Department uses Gazex avalanche exploders snow mountainside traffic safety mitigation Interstate I-70 closed; how roads are kept safe.

Remote-controlled avalanche mitigation in Colorado began in 2015 on Stanley Mountain above U.S. 40 on Berthoud Pass. The idea was that frequently triggered, remote-controlled explosions from the five ...

CDOT said they have not had a chance to use the two O’bellx exploders yet, but that opportunity may be coming soon, with this week’s big snowstorm, and another on the way Monday.

The exploders literally detonate a mixture of oxygen and propane from the tube structures, the explosive force from which triggers avalanches. Avalanche mitigation workers with the Colorado Department ...

The gas exploders are just 1 of the 5 options available to CDOT for remote avalanche mitigation, and Yount said each one comes with its own strengths and weaknesses.

On Feb. 28, the Gazex exploders on Stanley created a very rare D3 avalanche that buried U.S. 40, forcing a closure for more than three-and-a-half hours.

Other resorts, like those above Austria’s Ischgl, employ as many as 38 Gazex exploders. Gazex is only one tool in the vast avalanche-mitigation arsenal used in the steep-walled valley.

The 11 Gazex exploders on Loveland Pass and the five in the Stanley slide path that twice crosses U.S. 40 on Berthoud Pass will cut CDOT’s statewide use of the Avalauncher by a third, Lester said.