RAWLINS, Wyo. — The Wyoming Department of Transportation will present several tentative plans for charging tolls on Interstate 80.
WYDOT spokesman Bruce Burrows said the plans will be presented in public meetings next week in communities along the interstate corridor.
Public meetings are scheduled for Monday in Laramie, June 16 in Cheyenne, June 17 in Rawlins, June 18 in Rock Springs and June 19 in Evanston. The east-west interstate crosses southern Wyoming.
The Wyoming Legislature is studying the idea of tolls on I-80 as a way to raise money to maintain and expand the highway.
“The concept of a toll is foreign to Wyoming” because this is one of the few states where there are no toll roads, Burrows said.
Colorado has a few toll roads, and there are many in other areas of the country.
Burrows said the state’s shortfall in funding to keep I-80 in good shape is expected to approach $6.4 billion over the next 30 years. The shortfall takes into account the federal funds provided to maintain the highway.
“Our projection for funding even decades out is that it’s going to be insufficient to meet the needs of the roadway,” he said.
Heavy truck traffic is projected to increase from the 2007 count of about 6,500 per day to 15,600 per day by 2037. In the same period, passenger-vehicle traffic is predicted to increase from about 6,700 per day to 11,600 per day, according to the tolling feasibility study.
Preliminary studies indicate that the best method of instituting tolls probably would be to set up a single toll booth somewhere between Creston Junction and Rock Springs. Vehicles with toll accounts and small transmitters could pass right by, while others would have to use toll lanes.
“The toll collection facility could be strategically located away from urban areas to minimize tolling of local users and minimize the ability of cross-state traffic to divert around the collection facility,” the tolling study says.
Only Interstate 80 carries enough truck traffic to need to charge tolls for highway upkeep.
Tolling probably should be accompanied by widening the interstate to three lanes in each direction with trucks prohibited in the so-called “fast” lane.
The traffic structure would be similar to three-lane portions of the highway on steep climbs, he said.
