Billings Gazette (Billings, MT) reports, “Are extra lanes and tolls coming to Interstate 80 in southern Wyoming? That’s a $10 billion question. Or maybe a $6 billion question. But first it’s a $300,000 question, as the Legislature’s transportation committee learned [last week]. Wyoming Department of Transportation’s chief engineer Gregg Fredrick told the committee the main option being considered at the moment is building two new lanes[,] meaning three lanes running in each direction — and tolling commercial trucks that use those lanes. ‘What we are not going to do is toll existing interstate facilities,’ Fredrick said.” The joint committee was “noncommittal” on authorizing WYDOT to obtain an update of its most recent (2008) tolling feasibility study, but the co-chair, Senator Curt Meier (R-La Grange), intends to raise the issue again in January after several new members take their seats.
