The head of the Missouri Department of Transportation plans to try to convince the state General Assembly to authorize tolls for Interstate 70.

The state has had approval from the Federal Highway Administration since 2005 to place tolls on the highway as one of four states to be allowed to do so under the Interstate System Reconstruction & Rehabilitation Pilot Program.

Now the Kansas City Star reports that the highway department would like to form a partnership where a consortium of contractors would come together and build the highway, then recoup their expenses from tolls. How much the tolls would be and who would establish them would have to be worked out in an agreement with such a group.

For more than 10 years, the state has been trying to figure out how to pay for rehabilitating and expanding I-70. More than 50 years old, I-70 crosses the state from St. Louis to Kansas City. Some of the options discussed have included segregated truck lanes.