Be sure to wave on your way to Terrace!

Podunkians bound for the ski hills, minor hockey rinks or shopping Mecca’s of Terrace or beyond, will soon be able to check out with their own eyes the condition of the highway before they head out the door.

Following up on a trend that the Province has instituted across the province, traffic cameras are being placed in strategic locations on northwest highways, giving motorists a snapshot of conditions in three areas of the northwest.

The Prince Rupert camera has been placed at the Port Ed turnoff, the idea is that if you see snow or unseasonable weather at that location, then it’s a good bet that you’ll run into the same or worse along the stretch of the Skeena on the way to Terrace.

You can also check out the conditions in Terrace and on the way to Kitimat from the cameras already in place there one at Highway 16 and 37 and another five kiolmetres north of Kitimat) there will also be two additional cameras added to the system, which are to be installed sometime before Christmas.

All of the provinces webcams are accessible through the Drive BC website, the link for to all of them can be found here.

The Daily News had the details on the eye on road in Wednesday’s paper.

Cameras focus on road's hotspots
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Pages one and five

The Ministry of Transportation has installed the first in a series of new web cameras that will help Northwest drivers plan safe journeys.

Accessible through the province's DriveBC website, the new camera is located on Highway 16 at Port Edward Arterial Road, looking west.

"There are now close to 100 web cams across the province. It's one of the most popular initiatives the Ministry has brought in the last number of years. They are extremely helpful for people driving, especially in the snowier environment," said Don Ramsay, area manager for the Ministry of Transportation.

"At Port Ed, if you are seeing snow there, you know you will be seeing snow all the way to Terrace and beyond. You are on the edge of snow country most of the time, so this will be good bell weather for people leaving Prince Rupert. If they see something ugly there, they can expect that all the way across."

The Ministry will also be installing new web cameras 50 km east of Terrace and on the way to Kitimat, near Onion Lake, by the cross-country ski area. These will be installed by Christmas time.

There are existing cameras at the four-way stop at the intersection of Highway 16 and 37 in Terrace, five kilometers north of Kitimat and in Kitwanga.

“Once you’ve got three or four cameras in a row to look at, it will be very useful,” said Ramsey, as drivers will be able to check the road conditions to within a half an hour throughout the Northwest.

David Farsiat, the Ministry of Transportation’s electrical manager for the northern region from (Alberta to the Yukon to the Charlottes) said the cameras take a photo every half and hour and transmit it to the web site.

The cameras are installed in a box with a little tiny heater in it to keep the vision clear in the cold weather.

“It’s like your windshield, it doesn’t take a lot keep it defrosted. They seem to work really well in Vancouver and Victoria so we will have to see for the coast,” he said.

“People seem to just love them. They look at them from all over the province whenever they are driving and we get all kinds of letters saying they really appreciate it.”

This is less so for those who are constantly on the road like truck drivers, but people who do not know the roads say they really like to look at the conditions where they are headed,” he said.
The cameras are all be accessible through DriveBC.com, under the Highways cam section.

In addition, the Ministry of Transportation has also fixed the electronic sign at the Port Ed turnoff that updates drivers about road conditions between Prince Rupert and Terrace.

The sign was out of commission for nine months, from January to October 2007, after a power surge was caused by a landslide that took out a hydro poll and “fried everything inside of it,” said Farsiat.

The sign is manufactured in Minnesota and there are no repair professionals in the area to fix it. Ministry staff had to keep ordering and installing parts until it finally came back on-line.

The sign has been working intermittently since 2003 when it was knocked down by an oversized logging truck. It took a year and three months to replace at a cost of $200,000. During more than four years of operation, it has functioned for about two of them.