By Tom Weber, KWMU
St. Louis, MO – The head of Missouri's Transportation Department says any new St. Louis bridge over the Mississippi River might have to be a toll bridge.
Plans for a new bridge across the Mississippi are still on paper and awaiting an answer to the question of who will pay for it.
MO-DOT chief Pete Rahn says the current price tag of more $1.5 billion is more than either Missouri or Illinois can afford. And he says the federal government has too many projects to consider to expect this bridge will get full funding.
So, he says Missouri and Illinois officials must pare back the project to make it more realistic.
"It's going to have to become something at a billion or less and we're going to have to look at every possible way of paying for that and means also we've got to consider that as a toll bridge," Rahn said Thursday on KWMU's "St. Louis on the Air."
The bridge would east congestion on the Poplar Street Bridge, which currently carries three interstates over the Mississippi.