Missouri Considers Interstate 70 Tolls

Authorities in Missouri are considering adding tolls to Interstate 70, the busiest highway in the state. Department of Transportation director Kevin Keith told a joint legislative transportation committee this week that the interstate is going to be a gravel parking lot in less than 20 years. They can’t do nothing or continue going on as they are. Traffic runs fine on the road now, as long as there are no accident or construction works. However, either of those will cause a traffic jam for ten miles.

The proposed solution from the Missouri Department of Transportation is entering into a public-private partnership to make the interstate a toll road. However, this proposal is at odds with legislators. Republican Senator Mike Kehoe says that he hates toll roads, but no one likes them. However, somewhere along the line things need to be paid.

Keith says that the 60-year-old interstate needs massive improvements, but the department’s budget for infrastructure projects has dropped from $1.2 billion to $600 million. There isn’t any money in their normal construction plan that can pay for a project as big as Interstate 70.

The department’s director isn’t clear how much the tolls will be, but he estimates they could range between 10 cents and 15 cents per mile for cars and as much as three times that for large trucks. Tolls will be collected electronically instead of at booths. This is to keep traffic flowing and expenses to a minimum.

In order to make this happen, Missouri would have to enter a contract with a private entity, which would provide the upfront cost to allow construction to move “unreasonably fast”. The construction and tolling locations would go up between the Interstate 470 interchange near Kansas City to the Highway 40-61 interchange near St. Louis. This is estimated to take six to eight years to complete. The toll cost will depend on how much funding Missouri needs upfront.

It will cost $2 billion to replace the pavement on the whole interstate and to add a third lane in both directions. Another $1 billion would be needed to replace all interchanges and to add a 100ft wide median for expansion in the future. The most expensive plan would include rebuilding the interstate with two lanes in both directions and another two for only large trucks – which would cost $4 billion. However, Keith notes that the most inexpensive plan for improving highway safety would create about 6,000 jobs in construction and industries related to it throughout the state every year of the project.

Missouri Partnership is the quasi-governmental organisation that works to recruit firms to the state. Chief executive Christopher Chung says that quality transportation is always a top or nearly top priority of businesses looking to relocate. Having a central location is meaningless without a quality, strong transportation system, he added.