Region 1

• SR 89 – Logan Canyon – 20 miles

• SR 158 – Powder Mountain – 3 miles

• SR 39 – Ogden Canyon – 1 mile

Region 2

• SR190 – Big Cottonwood Canyon – 6 miles

• SR210 – Little Cottonwood Canyon – 8 miles

Region 3

• SR 92 – American Fork/Sundance – 8 miles

• US 189 – Provo Canyon – 7 miles

• US 40 – Daniels Canyon – 8 miles

• US 6 – Spanish Fork Canyon – 2 

Region 4

• SR 31 – Huntington Canyon – 14 miles

• SR 31 – Fairview Canyon – 3 miles

• SR 14 – Cedar Canyon – 2 miles

• SR 264 – Scofield Canyon – 1 mile

Organizational Chart

While the program is statewide, the majority of the personnel is housed in Region 2 to mitigate avalanche risk along SR-210 and SR-190. Therefore the program is funded and maintained with Region 2 maintenance funds. The UDOT avalanche program manager reports to the Region 2 southwest district engineer. In addition to the employees shown in the organizational chart below, there are several seasonals in Little Cottonwood Canyon that supplement the Little Cottonwood Canyon team to operate the howitzers for avalanche mitigation.

UDOT uses several pieces of equipment to mitigate avalanches, the primary tool being the howitzer. UDOT uses 105 mm howitzers that are leased from the US Army. They fire high explosive rounds to trigger avalanches. There are two stationary locations in Little Cottonwood Canyon (Peruvian Ridge and Valley Gun), one in Provo Canyon (Sundance Ski Resort), and two units that are mobile and could be moved to various locations. These guns are very accurate, reliable, and can shoot during any weather or time of day.

UDOT is in the process of eliminating the need for howitzers to eliminate overhead fire. At this point, Little Cottonwood Canyon is the only place outside of wartime where overhead firing takes place. Therefore, the Department is moving toward stationary devices called Remote Avalanche Control Systems (RACS) that can mitigate avalanche risk.. The first type of RACS is the gazex; the gazex is a system that uses specially constructed "exploder" sites and tubes built at key locations in avalanche territory to set off avalanches at controlled times. The exploders detonate a mixture of oxygen and propane from the tube structures. The explosive force expelled from the tubes triggers avalanches. The explosive bursts are fueled by gas canisters stored in tanks in a shelter nearby and fed to the exploder via conduits. These are located in Little Cottonwood Canyon in 21 strategic locations. 6 shelters.  UDOT has 123 oxygen bottles, 50 gal of propane and 15 hours of helicopter time at $2000/hour.

The latest RACS to be installed are the wyssen towers. A wyssen avalanche tower is designed to trigger avalanches with remote-controlled blasting. To trigger an avalanche, a coded command is sent from the control center to the control system of the deployment box to initiate the blasting. The deployment box contains 12 prepared explosive charges, which can be individually deployed by remote control. When the explosive charge is dropped, two igniters are pulled and the explosion is set off after a time delay. The charge remains hanging from a cord at a pre-set height above the snow cover, which is completely dropped after blasting. To reload explosive charges the complete deployment box is lifted from the tower by helicopter and brought to a safe location to refill the deployment box.  There are currently 13 wyssen towers installed in Little Cottonwood Canyon.