I-10 between Casa Grande Valley and the Phoenix metropolitan area has recently been outfitted with a new series of camera towers—but it is not the speed-demons that they are looking to capture.
According to Arizona Department of Transportation spokesman Harold Sanders, the cameras are designed to check commercial trucks to see if they are compliant with regulations and are not overweight.
“It has nothing to do with speed enforcement,” Sanders said. “This is not photo enforcement. We get so many calls on that from the general public because once upon a time photo enforcement did exist. But it has absolutely no ability to capture that type of information.”
The cameras are part of a larger system that when fully operational will make conducting safety inspections on commercial vehicles more efficient, said Sanders. The system functions via sensors embedded in the pavement near the Sacaton Rest Area that trucks will drive over to see if they are compliant or not. At the same time, the camera will capture information on the truck and run it through a database to see if the driver has the proper documentation.
Those found to not have proper documentation on file will be informed through two electronic signs following the cameras to pull into the rest area for a secondary inspection. Those that are found compliant will be informed to continue on.
“The state mandates that commercial vehicles have specific types of equipment that they are required to operate physically, and we are mandated to enforce that along with the Arizona Department of Public Safety,” Sanders said. “Our goal is to try and maximum the use of personnel that we have because commercial truck traffic is huge.”
Sanders added that equipment will only be operational when the scales at the rest area are manned by ADOT’s Mobile Port Detail personnel from ADOT’s Enforcement and Compliance Division. The $7.5 million system should be up and running within a month.
Other locations to feature the cameras include areas near the McGuireveille Rest Area on I-17, between Flagstaff and Camp Verde, and the Canoa Ranch Rest Area on I-19, between Tucson and Nogales.
