Why does the Kootenay cam go out of service from April to October each year?
The ‘camp’ at the Salmo-Creston Highway Summit, where the Kootenay Highway Cam resides, is powered by a large diesel generator as there are no power poles into that area. The camp is used by winter road maintenance staff, and when the winter maintenance season is over the entire camp is shut down. This means that the camera and all the on-site communications infrastructure is shut down (the camera sends images via the local Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure intranet connection in the camp). The Ministry is currently investigating other possible methods to power the camera but with no power from the camp, options are very limited. There is no digital cell coverage in the area so we are unable to transfer images in that manner. It is difficult to justify running the large diesel generator year-round to power a 100 watt camera. The primary purpose of the cameras is to warn drivers of bad highway conditions during severe weather seasons. Until October there are few such conditi
