KEY POINTS:
A world-leading avalanche control system developed for Milford Road in Fiordland has been entered for a major international award.
The Transit New Zealand programme for State Highway 94 leading into Milford Sound, now in its 25th year, will contest the International Road Federation Global Achievement Awards.
The award will be judged in the United States and the winners will be named next month.
The programme is one of only two in the world to use helicopters to aerially release explosives to cause an avalanche, which can then be safely cleared.
It is run for Transit by contractor Downer Edi Works, whose key people with the programme, Wayne and Ann Carran, developed the system after Mr Carran's friend and fellow road worker Robert Andrew was killed on the road by an avalanche in 1983.
Mr Andrew was the fourth road worker to die since work started on the road in the 1930s.
Since the programme's inception in 1983, there have been no injuries as a result of avalanches and Milford Road is open nearly all year.
- NZPA
