Toll roads appear an option for Missouri

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Following the overwhelming defeat of a tax plan by voters, transportation commissioners on Thursday expressed a renewed interest in pushing for tolls as a way to fund some roads and bridges.

Their discussion came after what they described as the disappointing defeat Tuesday of Proposition B, which would have raised around $500 million annually through higher state fuel and sales taxes.

Missouri voters rejected the proposal by 72.5 percent.

Like new taxes, toll roads have not fared well when proposed to voters in the past. But confronted with more needs than money, members of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission said it's time to explore all options.

"Especially after Tuesday, it is time that we be more innovative and creative than ever," said transportation commissioner Jim Anderson of Springfield. "Our number one legislative priority this session needs to be that dialogue, that discussion, on toll roads and toll bridges in Missouri."

The Missouri Department of Transportation has no power to build or operate toll roads, but a 1990 state law does allow transportation districts or corporations to use tolls.

The first such project -- a $24 million toll bridge across the Lake of the Ozarks -- opened in 1998.

Transportation commissioners on Thursday gave the go-ahead for a detailed study of a potential toll road in southwest Missouri that would bypass a slow stretch of U.S. 71 in Bella Vista, Ark.

The toll road bypass would begin around Pineville and likely include less than 10 miles in Missouri. The rest would be in Arkansas. Transportation officials from both states already have met to discuss the project. The cost of the study -- estimated at $300,000 -- would be split between the states.

The toll road would have to be built and operated by a private corporation.

But Missouri's transportation commissioners are thinking bigger than just one project. They hope the findings of the toll road study for a U.S. 71 bypass can serve as an example of what could be done elsewhere around the state.

Commission chairman Ollie Gates of Kansas City said he would like to press the issue of toll road authority in the legislature, which then could refer a constitutional amendment to the ballot.

"We're going to have to look at some innovative ways to do the things we need to do," Gates said.

The state already has spent $125,000 for a privately conducted study on the general feasibility of toll roads and bridges.

The study, distributed Thursday to commissioners, looked at 15 roads and seven bridges to determine whether toll roads might be cost-effective.

U.S. 71 was the only road on the list that was projected to return more money in tolls than it would cost to construct.

Profitable bridges

A positive return also was projected for four potential toll bridges over the Missouri River on Missouri 19 at Hermann, Missouri 47 at Washington, U.S. 59 near Atchison, Kan., and Interstate 29 at Kansas City.

Tolls on Interstates 44 and 55 were projected to return between 80 percent and 100 percent of their costs. Returns of between 40 percent and 80 percent were projected if tolls were placed on Interstates 29, 35 and 70, as well as on a new U.S. 136 bridge over the Missouri River at Phelps City and a new Interstate 70 bridge over the Mississippi River in St. Louis.

Any toll project potentially returning more than 40 percent was worth studying further, concluded the initial study by HNTB, which worked with Wilbur Smith Associates and Salomen Smith Barney.

Transportation department director Henry Hungerbeeler cautioned that previous attempts to authorize tolls have not fared well. A 1992 proposal was rejected by 58 percent of voters; a 1970 proposal was rejected by 71 percent.

Lawmakers considered referring new toll road proposals to the ballot each of the past few years, but the bills died.

"Nevertheless, we intend to keep trying," Hungerbeeler said.