The Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) is working to enhance its 511 traveler information service, implemented four-and-a-half months ago, to make the service more customer friendly. Individuals dialing in will note three major changes in the system:

• MDT is adding 800 miles of additional routes so that the database will include more than 8,000 miles of major state-maintained roads.

• The department changed the service's milepost references to land-based references. Instead of saying that Interstate 15 is snow packed and icy from milepost a to b, the system will reference the city names.

• Road and weather information for North and South Dakota will be added to the 511 system in an effort to facilitate interstate travel. The 511 system, which provides real-time road and weather information 24 hours a day, logged more than 240,000 calls in the first 12 weeks of its inception in January 2003.