More eyes on the road in province
Government adding additional highway cameras in 2018
The Department of Transportation and Works has taken notice of public interest in highway cameras and the desire for an option to check in online before heading onto the open road.
“In recent weeks, we expanded our use of technology to help motorists make informed decisions before travelling by adding two new highway cameras — one on the Trans-canada Highway at Whitbourne and another on Route 210 near Terrenceville — for a total of 33 highway cameras motorists can now view online,” Transportation and Works Minister Steve Crocker said in a statement in the House of Assembly just prior to the Easter break.
“We will be adding an additional four cameras in the coming year,” he added.
Last week’s provincial budget included $600,000 for highway camera operations in 2018.
According to information made available on budget day, one new camera will be located on Route 330 near Lumsden, adding to the limited camera count in the central region. There are already cameras on the Trans-canada Highway at Gander and Grand Falls-windsor.
A second new camera will go on Route 430, near Rocky Harbour,
on the Northern Peninsula highway also known as The Viking Trail. There is already a camera at Daniel’s Harbour to the north, and along the Transcanada Highway to the west, at Pasadena.
The third new camera will be placed somewhere on Route 460
leading to Stephenville.
A fourth camera will be placed on the Trans-canada Highway between Port aux Basques and Corner Brook.
These highway cameras are for monitoring road conditions.
The province has also had “weight-in-motion system”
(WIMS) cameras watching commercial vehicles on the road in at least four locations. As of the last update in 2016, those cameras were being used for general monitoring and vehicle counts.
On the Department of Transportation and Works website, the province provides a web
page associated with each of its cameras tracking road conditions. Drivers can also obtain weather warnings for each area from Environment Canada and the latest reports on road conditions.