HUDSON VALLEY – If you have driven across Interstate 84 in the Mid-Hudson Valley lately, you may have seen new digital traffic signs appearing on overhead cantilevers.
Those new signs, part of a statewide campaign to make highways safer with up-to-the-minute traffic conditions, have been installed along the superhighway as well as Interstate 86 – the renamed section of New York Route 17 west of the region, I-81, I-87/Northway, and I-88.
You may have also noticed tall poles along I-84 with inverted domes. They are cameras that are remotely monitored for traffic conditions, accidents and motorists who are breaking the law.
As part of the initiative, the State Department of Transportation has installed and activated an additional 125 cameras and 143 variable message signs.
With the new equipment in place, there are now 1,150 state-operated cameras and over 550 digital message boards connected to the DOT’s transportation management centers including the one in Hawthorne.
The Thruway Authority has also installed 25 new portable variable management signs head of the snow and ice season. The Thruway Authority has 78 permanent and 120 portable digital signs across its 570-mile system.
