When the US Interstate system was proposed during the Eisenhower administration, it's purpose was as an "Emergency Response" measure. It was nominally based on complaints that in a country as large as the US it was incredibly difficult to move large quantities of heavy equipment and freight on existing US highways. "Trial journeys" by military convoys of fairly modest size in the 1940s and before were consistently disastrous, requiring weeks or months to cover a couple of thousand miles, and leaving heaps of broken vehicles littering the country.

The Interstate system was proposed to be paid for principally by the vehicle and road use taxes on commercial freight, which would have first priority for the use of the new system, subject to the exclusive use by the military in time of emergency. Later changes to the laws and regulations formally accepted the use of the proposed Interstate highways on a "courtesy" basis by private vehicles and drivers, with a nominal amount based on observed usage to be contributed from general fuel taxes to the construction and maintenance of the roads. Tolls were prohibited generally.

Standards for construction were published, but in order to qualify for Federal funding there was a delay of about 3 years before the first "qualified" contracts for construction were released and "official construction" could begin. In the meantime, in a few places, State highway departments "pre-started" by beginning road constructions that were intended for "acceptance into" the Interstate system when (and if) the roads built under Federal contracts connected.

In Kansas, a "quasi-state" Kansas Turnpike Authority was formed to build, in advance of the Interstate contracts, a new highway of about 240 miles, from the South border where connection with a proposed Interstate Highway in Oklahoma was expected, to Kansas City in the far NorthEast corner of the state.

In Oklahoma, a similar "Turnpike" was constructed from around Tulsa to an expected junction with the same Interstate segment, a distance of about 100 miles. Oklahoma also "pre-constructed" a number of shorter stretches to "Interstate specification" that were exepected to, and largely did, connect eventually with the Interstate system.

In nearly all of these "pre-constructions" the roads were built as toll roads with the promise that the tolls would be removed when the roads were accepted into the system as Interstate Highways.

Approximately 30 days prior to the "official" connection of the Kansas Turnpike with Interstate 35 at the Oklahoma border, someone "suddenly discovered" that existing toll roads could continue to charge tolls as part of the Interstate system, under a "grandfather clause" inserted without general public knowledge sometime during the intervening few years.

All of the above cited roads remain toll roads today, and Oklahoma has been one of the principal lobbyists for additional tolling on more sections within their state.

At about the time that the "grandfather clause" on tolls became public, the argument was that "back east" the states had already built numerous toll roads that were "nominally to Interstate standards," and that it would save lots of money if they were allowed to be made part of the Interstate system.

Any toll road that is currently part of the Interstate Highway system must have been completed and charging tolls prior to becoming part of the system. The intent obviously is to change that.

John