Lake Louise Drive Rehabilitation and Modernization

Please review traffic updates.

Parks Canada asks visitors to plan ahead, take transit, or book shuttles before arriving at Lake Louise, budget extra time when visiting, be patient and expect delays throughout summer 2024.

For more information check Alberta 511, bookmark this page, and follow Banff National Park on Facebook.

Access to the Lake Louise Park and Ride (located at the Lake Louise Ski Resort) will not require crossing any of the construction sites along Lake Louise Drive. Visitors should be mindful that the entire Lake Louise area experiences high traffic volumes during the summer months, causing delays and congestion (even without construction). Parks Canada will make efforts to minimize delays and will ensure access to the Park and Ride for those with shuttle reservations. Traffic personnel will be in place again this summer to support the flow of traffic in the Lake Louise area.

Lake Louise is a busy area in the summer and we ask visitors to be patient and prepare for delays while the construction is underway.

There will be no change in road-use restrictions during construction on Lake Louise drive. Contractors are required to maintain and manage traffic including cyclist and pedestrians, assuming there are no other restrictions in place. Cyclists and pedestrians can also access Upper Lake Louise on the Tramline trail.

Potential modifications to existing trails that will improve wildlife connectivity and the experience for pedestrians and bikers are being assessed as part of this project.

Learn more about hiking or biking from the community of Lake Louise to the lakeshore.

The upcoming construction on Lake Louise Drive will focus on repair and rehabilitation of the pavement, with improvements to wayfinding and pedestrian safety. A dedicated bike lane is not in the scope of this project.

The current roadway repairs and improvements of this project are within the existing roadway footprint. Expanding the roadway footprint to include a standard cycling lane would require pushing back the steep slope next to the roadway. This would significantly increase costs and require an extensive environmental impact analysis.

Parks Canada will explore optimizing the existing scenic trail network between the community of Lake Louise and the lakeshore, while reducing the impact to the environment and wildlife movement.

With the exception of key intersections, the existing roadway footprint and lane configuration of Lake Louise Drive will remain the same.

Many options were discussed for this location including traffic lights, a two-way stop, and leaving it as is. The main issue in this location is the resulting congestion impacts during peak flows if no flaggers are present. Roundabouts are shown to significantly reduce traffic incidents and crashes in comparison to traditional intersections with traffic lights.

Key benefits with a roundabout include:

• significantly reduced flagging requirements
• improved safety
• improved traffic flow
• reduced maintenance and operations costs
• permitting the opportunity to turn vehicles around easily if desired or in an emergency

This roundabout location will be complete with all required signage, markings, and line painting to direct both vehicles and pedestrians.

Lake Louise Drive is a mostly two-lane, undivided roadway offering one lane of traffic for each direction. For this reason, it is not possible to designate a lane for shuttles. Additionally, it not feasible to close Lake Louise Drive to personal vehicles for a variety of reasons pertaining to logistics and safety. More than one million people access Lake Louise annually. Many require access via personal vehicle as employees or hotel guests and patrons. Each vehicle would need to be assessed, filtered, and safely redirected. There is no safe method to manage this volume of traffic without using Lake Louise Drive.