The Montana Department of Transportation should be able to clear snow off the highways twice as fast with a new fleet of eight tow-plows scattered throughout the state.

"They're pretty cool," MDT Operations Manager Brittany Hamilton said. "They are a plow and then there is an additional unit on the back of that and it will kind of kick the snow out to the side and so it improves efficiency. It's about 26 feet wide."

The tow plows are more the twice the width of a traditional plow and can clear two lanes at once. Another new feature from MDT is a mobile app for road conditions information.

"The mobile app is the same as our website pretty much," Hamilton said. "You'll be able to access the same information. There's also roadway camera images that are available on that site. So it kind of gives you a quick snapshot of what's going on and what current conditions are."

The new app is called MDT Mobile. Of course, travelers can still get information the old-fashioned way by calling 5-1-1 for up-to-the-minute information.

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