Toll road rules could be issue

Sunday, November 20, 2011

For years, Missourians who supported the idea of building toll roads, as other states have done, thought they had to win statewide voters’ approval of a constitutional amendment.

Several years ago, the Legislature approved charging tolls on the new bridge across the Mississippi River at St. Louis, but Illinois — which also is helping build that bridge — objected, and MoDOT will use its existing money supplies to pay for the project.

But the state Transportation department now is renewing the toll roads idea, as the apparent best way to pay for rebuilding Interstate 70 across outstate Missouri.

Director Kevin Keith told reporters last week: “We’re not looking for a constitutional change.”

But, didn’t the Missouri Supreme Court say voters had to approve any toll road proposal?

“There is some question about all that,” Keith said.

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