KANSAS CITY TO STL I-70 TOLL ROAD?!?



An unlikely fix to a deadly and horrific highway might be the only fix . . . Here's the argument . . .

"There is legislation in the Missouri House that would make a section of Interstate 70 a toll road between Kansas City and St. Louis. It would permit the Missouri Highway Commission to enter into a partnership with a private company to finance and develop or operate a reconstruction of I-70, funded by user fees . . . The fact is that if I-70 is to be upgraded and expanded, there may be no other practical and acceptable plan except for making it a toll road. As long as Missourians oppose toll roads, the worse I-70 is becoming."

You decide . . .

Comments

  1. I-70 could be widened and that should give a boost to the whole state economically, including the interior small towns. it would be a huge benefit to kc and st. louis.

    if it has to be a toll road, so be it.

    let's widen now!

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  2. Widening I70 would be better for the Kansas City economy than a new airport!

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  3. please adapt the widening to the eventuality of self-driving cars and leave room for a maglev train in twenty years.

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  4. I thought Trump was going to build it.

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  5. ^ like Obama and his free phones? Or take it from Obama's stash?

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  6. The problem with the privatization of public roads is: it literally won't solve anything. So, let's turn I-70 into a toll road. In five years or less, MoDOT will be complaining about lack of funding to repair roads; just like now. What will the answer be then? I-44 toll road between Joplin and STL, then I-49, then the loop like Chi-town, where would it end? The biggest issue from my perspective is the amount of pet-projects that MoDOT funds to the hilt. I had the fortune/misfortune of watching one of those ridiculous divergent diamond interchanges go in. Rather than a single bridge deck, you "have to" build two. They take up more ROW/acquisition space. Rule of thumb would be about a 25% increase in cost with no measurable increase in Level of Service over a standard bridge/interchange. MoDOT could use some significant budget analysis and better resource allocation before privatizing roads. Here's a freebie for all the MoDOT employees surfing TKC: all speeding tickets written by municipalities on State roads surrender those ticket revenues for maintenance on State roads within their jurisdiction. After all, those tickets are only for the public good right? Not lining the pockets of said municipality for sure...

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    1. Fantastic.. ty for a solid suggestion.. I concur ...

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  7. All freeways in Kansas will be toll roads in the near future because the state government is deliberately bankrupting itself, as per Repubican ideology, and can no longer maintain them. Missouri too, probably. Won't be a big problem if most residents are too poor to buy gasoline.

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  8. I'm all for making it a toll road. There would be an easy way to do it (by putting maybe three "check points" where tolls are paid along the route vs at every interchange like is done in Kansas), but I'm sure they'll choose the more expensive way.

    That all said, it's interesting that in the state with the lowest tax on gasoline, the fine folks in Jeff City refuse to raise the gas tax and then say there is no other way they can fund improvements to I-70.

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  9. as a person not knowledgeable in road finance, may i say that dammit it doesn't make that much difference. what would make a difference, a huge difference, to the economies of kansas city, st. louis, columbia, and other mid-state towns, would be having a wider, quicker, safer I-70.

    widen I-70 now!

    if the regressivity of toll roads is an issue, find a way to adjust that.


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  10. If I have to pay to drive I-70 to get a 3rd lane, then I want all the trucks in the center lane and nowhere else except when they're getting off an exit. Damn those truckers to hell for the way they take 10 miles to pass each other on I-70!

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  11. Expect more public assets to be sold off by G Gun.

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  12. 1156. I agree
    I'm a trucker and would love to see a separate hiway just for trucks between kc and St. Louis. A toll would pay for that and it would speed up travel. Cars wouldn't have deal with trucks and vice versa

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  13. I took my kid to Boston so she could start college a few years ago. I learned that in some of those states, the only way to get from one end of the state to the other is by driving a toll road. Several states were like this.
    Mostly, the toll roads were kept in good condition.
    Why is this such a stupid idea for the midwest? Why would Missouri not benefit with a great, well-maintained road like this?

    Bunch of small thinkers in Missouri.

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  14. yeah, toll roads are everywhere.

    better to have a good highway with a toll than an I-70 that's a pain and sometimes unsafe.

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  15. No trucks in the left lane on the new toll road.

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  16. Raise the gas tax! Missouri has, by far, the lowest in the eight state area!

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