Montgomery County, PA

NORRISTOWN — The Montgomery County Commissioners will unveil the Public Safety Department’s new ability to monitor major area highways using PennDOT closed circuit video cameras on April 20.
A brief ceremony to show off the new system will be held at the Emergency Operations Center, 50 Eagleville Road, Eagleville, at 2 p.m.
The Montgomery County Public Safety Department, PennDOT District 6 and the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission worked together to develop the new system.
Supervisors in the County Emergency Dispatch Center can now monitor major highways using 100 cameras in the five-county region during daylight hours.
Dispatchers will be able to see where traffic backups might block the passage of emergency vehicles.
In the evening and overnight hours, control of those cameras will be turned over to the Emergency Operations Center and supervisors there will have the ability to move, tilt and zoom the cameras.
That will give dispatchers the ability to view the scene of an incident in more detail and possibly determine the number of people trapped or injured, whether any vehicles are on fire or whether hazardous chemicals are involved and transmit that information to first responders.
Cameras are currently operational on the following roadways in Montgomery County: Route 422 Collegeville east to 202, Route 202 King of Prussia area and further south, I-76 to the Conshohocken curve and I-476 from County line north to Ridge Pike.
There is also the ability to monitor PennDOT cameras on I-95 and I-676 Vine Street as needed.
The signals from the cameras are transmitted via a leased T-1 line funded through an Intelligent Transportation Systems grant provided by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.
PennDOT provided and installed the video switching equipment.

For further information, contact David Paul Brown, Montgomery County EMS at 610-631-6518.