Posts Tagged ‘ BC highwaycams ’

Everything You Need to Know About Travel Advisories on BC Highways

Ministry staff and our highway maintenance contractors work around the clock to keep travellers on BC highways moving safely, but sometimes extreme weather (or other emergency conditions) create special circumstances that can pose challenges for motorists. When that happens we place a specific travel advisory on DriveBC to help bring attention to the event and help travellers make better plans based on those conditions. We take a number of factors into consideration when we post a travel advisory, such...

Question: What do some BC HighwayCams and seismic sensors have in common? Answer: A shared power source, a dedicated team of ministry staff and a great outcome to boot! That’s because our webcam crew and seismic engineers are teaming up to expand the BC Strong Motion Network by installing seismic sensors inside BC HighwayCam power boxes and using the power on hand to run them. These “tag team” sensors are part of a larger, provincial Strong Motion Network (SMN),...

How do you get your road condition information? Email alerts? On Twitter @DriveBC? Watching BC HighwayCams? Before the internet, before television, heck – even before radio, British Columbians have been exploring this beautiful province in their cars; and ever since those cars started rolling out and about – highway travellers have been looking for information on road conditions. That is where our journey to communicate road condition information began and it continues to this very day – the safety...

It’s official. Summer is gone and autumn is upon us. A quick look around our BC HighwayCams on DriveBC confirms it. What does the first day of fall look like in BC? It looks like gold at the Peace View Rest Area (above). Stay gold Peace View, stay gold… Fog has settled in at Wire Cache. Yes, that is snow at Heckman Summit in the Southern Interior. (Don’t sweat it – make the Shift into Winter now and you’ll...

When Old Man Winter makes his reappearance across the province in the fall, it’s time to make the shift into winter. Did you know that some of our BC Highway Cams have to make the shift into winter too? It’s true. Many of our cams are close to local power sources, making it easier for them to transmit data in all kinds of weather. But some of our more remote cams don’t have power close by and rely on...

It must be spring, because new BC HighwayCams are popping up here, there and everywhere. Travellers in the Fraser Valley will appreciate two new cams with a total of eight views (four each) just launched on Highway 1 at 232nd and 264th Avenues. Here is the easterly cam for 232nd: And here is the northerly cam for 232nd: BC Highway 16 also just came alive at Tete Jaune Cache. Looking good out there! We are always adding to our...

Spring has finally sprung! Or has it? While today marks the official arrival of spring, a quick glimpse around our beautiful province through the eyes of DriveBC HighwayCams reveals many different kinds of roads to be travelled – all depending on your location. Spring does not treat all B.C. drivers equally. After all, it’s a transition period, and weather conditions can bring a little bit of everything. No matter where you live, it’s important to be aware of the...

While we have close to 300 web cams offering a total of almost 400 views that motorists use for safe travel in B.C., there’s one web cam with a special job that you won’t see. You won’t see the web cam alongside Highway 31 north of Kaslo, on DriveBC, because its focus isn’t road conditions – it’s Lardeau Bluffs, which loom high above the road along Kootenay Lake. Avalanche technicians with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure use the...

If you live in the Duncan/Cowichan Lake area, you may have noticed one of the two DriveBC HighwayCams on Highway 18 has been unavailable recently. Don’t worry – it’s not down for good. It’s actually being moved to a nearby location. DriveBC HighwayCams don’t always stay put. The current Highway 18 webcam relocation got us thinking it would be helpful to you if we explained some of the reasons why we might move a webcam. If we shift a...

Lately, we’ve been introducing you to some of the folks who work around here, not only to provide you with a better idea of what we do as a ministry, but also to give you a better idea of who we are personally and the diverse group it takes to keep you safe as you travel the province’s highways. Today we’re talking with Steve Drew, our Senior Electrical Standards Technologist. We also like to call him “the webcam guy”....