‘A sleek new package:’ Highway Hotline receives updated look

It has come in handy not only in the past few weeks but over almost 50 years.

Now the Highway Hotline has a new look online and on your phone.

The Saskatchewan government unveiled the new look Wednesday. It provides cleaner graphics and added features, along with all of the updated road conditions and closures.

Highways Minister Jeremy Cockrill is excited about the new version of the app.

“It’s got all the same trusted highway and road information in a sleek new package people will love,” Cockrill said Wednesday.

He says the Highway Hotline is an essential tool, especially when people are travelling during the winter months so they can know conditions before they hit the road.

“Typically in a year, the Highway Hotline receives about 6.5 million visits, but we’ve seen that creep up over time and last year we saw 13 million visitors to the Highway Hotline site,” he added.

The timing also couldn’t have been much better: Much of the province saw a large amount of snow fall in the past few weeks.

Cockrill said the site will be updated a minimum of three times per day and more frequently during weather events to provide the most up-to-date information.

Along with the new look, there are some added features to the app.

“It makes it easier to kind of toggle back and forth, I’d say, between the cameras and as well as looking at the road conditions themselves,” he said.

As well, users can now save routes that they typically travel and get notifications on the roads before making the trip.

“Obviously I drive Battleford to Regina a couple of times a week and so I was able to add that as a favourite route on the app and now I’m going to get daily notifications on the conditions of that route,” said Cockrill, the MLA for The Battlefords.

The new app will also be able to pinpoint drivers’ locations so if they’re out camping or don’t know exactly where they are in the province, they can find out where they need to go and get updated road conditions.

Christine Niemczyk, CAA Saskatchewan’s director of corporate communications, encouraged people in a statement to download the app.

“We include the Saskatchewan Highway Hotline in our safety messaging because we know the weather in our province can change quickly. It’s important to adapt our driving behaviour to the current weather and road conditions, and to rely on resources such as the Saskatchewan Highway Hotline to help keep all road users safe,” she said.

The Highway Hotline features road conditions, incidents, construction, weather alerts and more. Plus there are 40 cameras that give drivers a real-time look.

Cockrill said the new app didn’t have a cost for the government. It’s free to download and is available on the Google Play and Apple Store.