State officials hope to have construction complete and the scales operating at a new weigh station on Interstate 90 in Montana by the end of July.

The new weigh station, near Butte, MT, replaces a decades-old station at the bottom of Rocker Hill. The new weigh station is on the top of the hill and will include about a dozen new truck parking spaces for drivers who need to stop for a break.

Officials with the Montana Department of Transportation told the Billings Gazette that the $4 million move was necessary because of safety concerns. Often there would be so any big rigs in line for the old scales at the bottom of the hill that they ended up jamming traffic on the I-90 ramp.

Kevin Christensen, the district construction engineer on the project, told Land Line that the old location was also a safety hazard because trucks sometimes had trouble stopping at it during snowy and icy conditions.

The new weigh station will be part of the PrePass system, Jeff Ebert of the Transportation Department told the Billings Gazette. The new location also will have transportation permits available so that truckers will no longer have to travel into the Transportation Department office in Butte.