Kendra Bearden pumped 12 gallons of gas into her car this week at Eudora’s Kwik Shop in preparation for her daily commute on Kansas Highway 10 to her job in Lenexa.

Reflecting on the $2.88 in fuel sales tax revenue her purchase contributed to the state, Bearden said she was doing enough to pay for highway improvements.

She and fellow K-10 commuters may soon be asked to do more as the Kansas Department of Transportation looks for ways to pay for two additional lanes that a 2005 study showed would be needed within five years on the highway from Kansas Highway 7 to Interstate 435.

In comments before the Senate Ways and Means Committee in Topeka earlier this month, K-10 was flagged as a possible toll road candidate because of its high traffic count.

“No, I don’t want that,” Bearden said. “I drive it every day. There’s no other way to get (to work). I have to use K-10.”

The motor fuel tax, a sales tax component and vehicle registration fees are the three sources of state funding for highway programs, said KDOT director of planning and development Terry Heidner. But those sources might need supplementing as his department looks to the future and funding for a new transportation plan.

KDOT’s triad of funding sources aren’t keeping up with the cost of building highways, Heidner said.

Another concern as KDOT planners look ahead is how existing funding sources could continue to pay for the program after it expires. The state borrowed $995 million before this year to pay for programs in the 1999 comprehensive transportation plan, and authority was given this year to issue another $210 million in bonds to help complete the project list.

Those realities have KDOT looking at other funding options.

KDOT is reviewing needs, traffic and demographic trends and revenue projections in anticipation of working with the Legislature to develop the next transportation plan, Heidner said.

Part of that review would look at what other states are doing, and that includes expansion of toll roads, Heidner said.

That option might also appeal to a Legislature reluctant to increase taxes or add to the state’s debt.

Heidner said legislators have asked KDOT to study tolls for different Kansas roads in the past. But he said no such study had been conducted for 15 years and K-10 had never been studied.

Eudora Mayor Tom Pyle opposes converting the highway to a toll road.

“I say it’s a money grab,” Pyle said. “I’m not for it at all.”

Making K-10 a toll road would harm the Eudora economy and economic development because motorists would be reluctant to deal with the hassle of paying tolls, Pyle said.

Should a K-10 toll be proposed, he would fight it, Pyle said.

A few miles up the road, however, De Soto Mayor Dave Anderson is open to the concept. Tolls could be limited to the new lanes, which would be reserved for those paying for express driving, he said.

“I think we can make it work with economic development,” he said.

Anderson’s idea that tolls be restricted to new lanes was a possibility, Heidner said.

“Other states have what are called hot lanes where those wanting to drive in less-congested traffic pay a toll and buses and car pools drive for free,” Heidner said. “I’m not saying it’s going to happen on K-10, but it’s something worth looking at.”