Date:  Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Contact: Jeff Adamson, North Central Region Communications Manager, Wenatchee, (509) 667-2815, (509) 669-8778 Cell. E-mail: adamsoj@wsdot.wa.gov

WENATCHEE – The newest additions to the traffic camera images available on the Washington State Department of Transportation’s (WSDOT) web site are located at the US-Canada border crossing near Oroville in Okanogan County.

Demand for US 97 border crossing cameras has grown as both freight and tourism traffic has increased in the Lake Osoyoos-Oroville corridor, but the traffic volumes anticipated for the 2010 Olympics next February, prioritized the project for funding now.

The goal is to increase safety, access, and mobility for those on their way into Canada. Mobility has become a significant problem with wait times as long as an hour. Monitoring congestion and providing real-time information in advance of the border, will allow travelers to make better decisions.

Two electronic message signs were installed approximately five miles south of the border on US 97, both north and south of Oroville. The project installed a traffic monitoring system at the border to track the time a vehicle takes to get from one measured point to the next and that information is automatically displayed on the signs back in Oroville.

There are four traffic cameras. Two are at the border crossing facing north and south and two more, are a mile south of the border, facing north and south.

The $250,000 camera, sensor and sign installation was funded from a federal mobility and safety grant.

The four new cameras bring the number of traffic cameras in the WSDOT’s North Central Region to 28. Ten years ago, the region installed its first traffic camera at the summit of Stevens Pass. Statewide, WSDOT offers several hundred traffic and weather cameras to help motorists know before they go. 
                                                    ### 

US 97 Project web page: www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/US97/IntersectionSafety/ WSDOT's Traffic and Roads - Camera page: www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/

Direct links:
Border - South: www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/necam.aspx?cam=9023
Border– North: www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/necam.aspx?cam=9022
Approach - South: www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/necam.aspx?cam=9025
Approach - North: www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/necam.aspx?cam=9024

< Go Back