As a car dealer and state transportation commissioner, Mike Kehoe opposed the idea of using tolls to rebuild Interstate 70.
But Wednesday morning, Sen. Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, sat before the Senate's Transportation Committee, explaining a bill to allow tolls to pay for a "public-private partnership" to rebuild about 200 miles of the highway across rural Missouri, from Wentzville through Columbia to Independence.
Authorizing the partnership would allow a group of private companies "to rebuild what is a roadbed that was built for about a 30-year life that is about to turn 60," Kehoe explained, "a roadbed that was built for 20,000 cars a day that's getting 40,000 cars a day."
And the current highway isn't designed to handle the traffic that's coming in the future, he said.