St. Louis County is taking pride in being a leader in cutting edge technology that’s assisting snowplow drivers and county taxpayers.

Three years ago, a grid of remote cameras was set up across the county. And now more than ever it’s evolved into a major tool for St. Louis County.

Every time there’s a snow event, plow supervisors tap into a live feed from the cameras in their district and look at the conditions of the road. Because the county is so large, weather patterns differ from district to district, so if there is a considerable amount of snow on the roads they can send the plows out to wherever they are needed.

In the past plow drivers would be just sent out when the forecasted snow storm would hit. However, because of how big St. Louis County is the weather wouldn’t be impacting areas in the same way. Leaving snow plows to arrive to an area that really didn’t need plowing.

St. Louis county has experienced 45 snow events on average in the last 5 years. Each one approximately costing around $75,000 to $100,000. But now with more accuracy, the snow cameras are actually saving tens-of-thousands of dollars.

Matthew Beyer, the Maintenance Principal of St, Louis County Public Works, has been the man behind getting St. Louis County the cameras they need. He says, “being able to limit the callout to where the assets are needed and where the event is taking place, saves tax payers a tremendous amount of money. It saves wear and tear on our equipment and at the end of the day it saves resources for the county tax payers.”

The remote cameras not only can get a real time look at the streets but they can also calculate the temperature of the road and predict how slippery the streets may be.

With close to 100 cameras, the county says they would be looking to add more to the fleet.