Senate Committee Discusses Toll Roads For Missouri

It would take a constitutional change and passage of several other pieces of legislation that seem unlikely to pass at this point, but lawmakers in Jefferson City are still talking toll roads. Members of the Senate Transportation Committee hear testimony for and against legislation that would allow the Missouri Department of Transportation to toll certain raods in the state. MoDOT’s chief operating officer Pat Goff says this could be something to help his department give people what they want. But Senator Gary Nodler of Joplin, who represents an area with large trucking interests, is not so hot on the idea of tolling existing roadways. The example shown to the committee was to put tolls on Interstate-70. Nodler says he might be in favor of restricting tolling to truly new corridors, not just lanes added to existing roadways. The chairman of the Transportation Committee says it’s not likely this would pass in its current form.