Manitoba adds 25 new road-condition cameras to rural network

The province has added 25 cameras to its 511 network in an effort to provide more accurate information on road and weather conditions, says Manitoba's infrastructure minister.

The additional road cameras bring the province's total to 33, said Minister of Infrastructure Ron Schuler.

"These cameras will help Manitobanssee what conditions are like on many of the roads they're planning to drive on before they put their keys in the ignitionI would suggestbefore they leave the house," he said at a press conference Wednesday.

The 25 new cameras join the first eight cameras, whichwent up in 2013. Theyupload snapshots every 10 minutes of current road conditions atthe manitoba511.ca website, or on the Manitoba 511 app, said Schuler.

As for the decision to uploadstills instead of live video, Schuler said cost came into play.

"That certainly increases the cost," he said. "[They currently]give a fairly good indication of what the conditions are.The video does add a lot of cost to it, and we want to provide a service, we want to make sure it's being used and we want to keep it as low-cost as we can."

Some of the cameras also include stations to provide current weather information, he said. Cameras with stations cost around $22,000. Road condition cameras cost about $7,000.

More cameras may go up in the future, as long as people are accessing thecameras currently in place, Schuler added.

The cameras are located on provincial highways including:

• Trans-Canada Highway at Oakville, Deacons Corner, Kirkella, West Hawk, Hadashville, west of PTH 12 (northeast of Ste. Anne), Austin, PR 332 (halfway between Winnipeg and Elie), Oak Lake and Brandon.
• PTH 2 at PR 83 (near Pipestone).
• PTH5 at Ste. Rose south.
• PTH6 at Williams River, Devils Lake, St. Laurent, Fairford, Ponton and at PR 236(just south of Stonewall).
• PTH 10 at Minnedosa, Souris River Valley, Birch River and PTH60 (about 75 km southeast of The Pas).
• Yellowhead Highway (PTH 16) at Shoal Lake, Russell-Assiniboine Valley West and Arden.
• PTH59/101 (North Perimeter Highway).
• PTH75 at Ste. Agathe, PTH14 (near Letellier), Morris and Emerson.