Jan 15, 2008 11:02 pm US/Central
The New Snow Plow That Packs A Powerful Punch
(WCCO)
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The snow tow plow swings out to the right, up to 30 degrees, from behind the snowplow truck.
CBS
They say bigger is better, and if that's really the case, your drive to work just got a whole lot easier. The Minnesota Department of Transportation says it can clear more snow, faster, with a brand new tool in its arsenal of snow-removing equipment. It's a snow plow that can clear two lanes of traffic at once.
It's already working well on Interstate 94 between Maple Grove and Monticello, when the snow has piled up this season. So far MnDOT has used the plow about four times.
"Yea, it's big. It's the biggest one I've seen yet here," said Jess Gartner with MnDOT. He's the mechanic who keeps the mega-monster machine running, that's called a tow plow.
The plow swings out to the right, up to 30 degrees, from behind the snowplow truck. There are only a handful of them in North America.
Usually motorists only see the single-lane plows, which are about 12 feet long. This one is a whopping 26 feet long.
The Missouri Department of Transportation is using one like it in St. Louis.
What's so great about them is that they clear the road faster, and it takes less people to do the job.
"Where it typically takes four trucks to do four lanes, I can do four lanes with three trucks with this one here," said Gartner.
MnDOT should also save gas money, since one less truck will be on the road. Specially-trained MnDOT drivers will use the tow plow.
"This thing is such a great thing," said Gartner. "I don't know if I'm going to want to drive it down the road or not, but it's going to take some skilled operators to run it."
Gartner is going to make sure the tow plow works well when the next big storm brings snow. If the tow plow continues to work well, MnDOT might order more of them.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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