Between snow, ice and wind, Manitobans experience a range of winter driving conditions.
Before many drivers hit the road, they often look to 511 for recent information. Every day in the winter, about 100 provincial staff members cruise the highways reporting conditions.
“It’s generally by the eye and generally what they would do is if there are slippery conditions they would do a friction test and test their brakes to see how bad it was for the severity of it,” Darcy Delyea, regional maintenance manager for the Province of Manitoba said.
The drivers rate the roads in three main categories – bare, snow covered and ice covered. After their shifts end, drivers have to rely on the older information or look at the photos from 32 major highways on the 511 app or website.
“All of our major roads we have cameras set up on them, they have the ability to look at the camera and see what’s going on out there, what the surface looks like, what the weather’s doing,” Delyea said.
When there’s a storm, the province tries to get the busiest highways clear within four hours, but when those storms are severe, that’s when the RCMP step in to shut down highways.
READ MORE: Manitoba RCMP warn motorists about driving down closed highways
Const. Andrew Briscoe explained that closed highways mean the RCMP have determined it’s unsafe to continue.
“If the conditions are that you can’t see more than 100 meters, that’s not safe to be travelling. If the road is slippery, if we’re getting calls for collisions, lots of vehicles in the conditions it’s likely not safe to be out on the roads,” he said.
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