MoDOT director proposes toll on I-70

MoDOT Director Kevin Keith. Photo by Taein Park (Missouri News Horizon).

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — MoDOT director Kevin Keith says state lawmakers should give serious consideration to making Interstate 70 a tollway through Missouri.

“We think it’s an option worth talking about,” Keith told members of the Joint Legislative Committee on Transportation Oversight.

Under the plan, a private contractor or group of contractors would rebuild I-70 from the U.S. Highway 40/61 junction in Wentzville to the I-470 loop junction around Kansas City. After the project is complete, the contractors would operate the toll plazas for a period of years until the contractor’s investment has been repaid.

Keith said the federal government has already given Missouri a waiver to try this approach to rebuild the highway that serves as the main artery connecting the state’s two largest cities. Missouri has clearance to be one of only four pilot projects in the country where the U.S. Department of Transportation is allowing an existing highway to be turned into a toll road.

Keith said cost estimates for rebuilding I-70 for the increased volume it now carries run anywhere from $1.5 billion to $4 billion depending upon how drastically the road is improved. He estimates to pay for a project with public funds would necessitate a 15-cent hike in the state gas tax over a ten year period.

“If that’s not impossible, it’s highly unlikely that could happen in the current economic climate’” Keith said.

The Missouri legislature would have to pass enabling legislation for the toll road idea to move forward, and Keith said the time for that discussion to begin is now.

The director told legislators that by rebuilding I-70, the state would save between $75 and $90 million a year, the cost of upkeep for the current highway.

Legislators on the committee said they were pleased that Keith brought this idea to the committee and said that a discussion on the issue was timely. But none went so far as to endorse the toll road plan.

“Hopefully, those who oppose won’t just come and say ‘no’, they’ll come and say ‘no, but let’s look at (something else),” said Rep. Thomas Long, R-Battlefield.

Former Highways and Transportation Commission Chairman, Sen. Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, said public sentiment about the I-70 project “is a mixed bag.”

But Kehoe said the maintenance savings generated from the proposed I-70 rebuilding is reason enough for the conversation to begin.

“Anytime you can pick up a dollar to help out with those infrastructure projects, it will be a good investment,” said Kehoe.

Committee chair, Sen. Bill Stouffer, R-Napton, said he was concerned that motorists may try to avoid I-70 if it became a toll road, pushing traffic onto smaller roads, such as Highway 36 and Highway 50.

Keith said the concern was valid, but it would be up to the toll road operator to make sure tolls aren’t excessive. But he also pointed out that Highway 36 across the northern third of Missouri is now a four lane highway all the way from Chicago to Missouri’s western border.

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• 05-04-11-MoDOT Director on department cuts.wmv
• MoDOT gets go-ahead for massive cuts
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Posted by Dick Aldrich on November 17, 2011. Filed under Featured, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry