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Via phone and Internet, motorists can stay clear of construction, crashes.
State transportation officials are starting a service Friday that will help motorists avoid road construction and other delays.
On Friday, the state Department of Transportation will launch its 511 traveling-information system, which provides weather, accident and construction information for the state highway system over the phone, while the Web site also incorporates traffic cameras and speed-limit markings.
The phone number to call, 511, is the national designation for travel-information systems, which exists in 35 other states.
“I think, from an operations perspective, that traffic management was definitely a concern. … It was more of an issue that people wanted to (travel) quickly, easily and with as minimal disruption as possible,” state Department of Transportation spokeswoman Alison Wenger said.
The PennDOT system is overseen by agency employees and will help drivers plan ways to avoid traffic.
“We actually had in place an internal system that was available to PennDOT employees” to compile information from highway cameras or emergency personnel, Wenger said. “Everything is fed into that system, and then that system is what’s going to feed 511.”
The agency gave the project the green light in October, hiring a contractor to design and build the system. Phone calls go to an automated system that prompts with options to help users narrow pinpoint the information they’re looking for. There is no additional fee for using the service.
While not immediate, the system is accurate, Wenger said. “If a crash happens, it’s not going to be in 511 that second. It’s going to take verification. … If it’s something we see on our cameras, it could be on the system in 5 minutes,” she said. “That’s really also to ensure that someone’s not calling and giving false information.”
“The goal of 511 is just to help travelers make informed decisions,” she said.