The study will also examine public-private highway ownership partnerships. The study is part of an effort to explore alternative ways to pay for I-80 maintenance in light of flat or decreasing federal highway funding and rapidly escalating numbers of commercial trucks on the deteriorating interstate highway.

State Senator Michael Von Flatern of Gillette says a toll could generate the entire $6 to $8 billion dollars needed to maintain and expand I-80. An official with the Wyoming Trucking Association says the organization generally opposes tolling on existing roads but will withhold comment on the I-80 plan until more details are released.