LITTLE ROCK (AP) With the summer travel season underway, state highway officials in May announced work zone safety improvements, including remote cameras and radar sensors to monitor highway congestion.

The $3.5-million system will help drivers navigate Arkansas’ numerous interstate work zones, said Farrell Wilson, spokeswoman for the state Highway and Transportation Department.

“The traffic volume and the congestion all warranted we have a more extensive system available for safety and convenience,” she said.

Since 1999, when the first bids were taken for the nearly $1 billion improvement project, at least 70 people have died in or near interstate construction zones statewide —about half on Interstate 40, the state’s longest interstate highway.

Cpl. Ross Batson of the Arkansas Highway Police said the cameras will enable 24-hour monitoring of some of the most-congested construction zones.

And Batson said improved electronic signs will better inform motorists of the hazards ahead. The radar will convey the level of traffic congestion in the zone, he said.

“It will let people know when they are coming into traffic so they aren’t going 60 and then coming to a stop,” he said.

The improvements also will help dispatchers know what types of equipment and other help to send to a construction zone accident, he said.

But the technology won’t be used to stop drivers or issue tickets.

“This is not Big Brother watching you,” Batson said.

The monitoring equipment will be placed atop the highway department building off Interstate 30 in Little Rock and at the intersection of Interstates 30 and 40 in Little Rock.

The system will monitor a 17-mi. (27 km) construction project on Interstate 30 that stretches from Sevier Street in Benton to Geyer Springs Road in Little Rock.The department estimates 63,000 cars a day pass through the zone.

The equipment, which includes vehicle detector sensors, radio transmitters, electronic message boards and video cameras, also will monitor a stretch of Interstate 40 through North Little Rock between Interstates 30 and 430 and another work zone on Interstate 40 at Little Rock.

Wilson said the electronic message boards will flash warnings ranging from “slowing traffic ahead to stopped traffic ahead.”

“If there is a significant incident or the interstate is shut down ... they can override those message with whatever message is needed,” she said.