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Should Interstate 70 become a toll road?

MoDOT intends to resurrect the suggestion to provide funds needed for a major highway facelift.

MoDOT officials said federal highway funding rules generally prohibit states from attaching a toll to a highway already built and in use.

But the U.S. Department of Transportation gave permission to Missouri and two other states to make the conversion as long as the roadways in question are reconstructed.

MoDOT's Bob Brendel said a toll on I-70 would create lots of jobs to rebuild the highway.

"The formula says for every billion dollars that is spent on construction projects for transportation, it creates 23,000 to 25,000 jobs. We're talking about a project on the low in that would be about a $1.5 billion,” MoDOT's Bob Brendel said. “So that's a lot of jobs for both on the construction side and also the supplier side."

Brendel could not say exactly how much the toll would be.

MoDOT officials hope to sell the idea to a legislature, which has rejected tolls in the past.

Tell us what you think. Do you think Interstate 70 should become a toll road?