The Minnesota Department of Transportation has decided to slow its pursuit of privately built toll lanes in the Minneapolis metropolitan area.

In December 2003, Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced that his administration was ready to ask private companies to build more lanes on congested highways and then recoup the costs through tolls.

MnDOT charged ahead with the idea early this year, but met resistance from state lawmakers, who demanded a slower approach, The Associated Press reported.

In response, the transportation agency last week hired a consulting team to start from the beginning and report on the prospects for inviting private firms to construct optional, congestion-relief toll lanes.

The report, expected by the end of the year, will look at information collected from turning the existing carpool-bus express lanes on Interstate 394 into toll lanes. Those lanes are expected to open in spring 2005.

Consultants will use state and federal data to answer questions about where optional toll lanes would likely succeed; how many people would use them; how much public funding would be needed to support them; and how privately built lanes would fit in with the roadwork already scheduled.

A key target of the information will be local city councils, which have veto authority on toll lanes in their communities, The AP reported.

In Minnesota, two types of toll lanes are being consideration.

One type already in the works is on I-394 west of Minneapolis. MnDOT will convert the freeway’s existing carpool lane to an optional toll lane by next spring. It will allow solo drivers to pay a fee to use an express lane with carpoolers and bus riders who will continue to use it free of charge.

The second type would be newly constructed toll lanes added to existing freeways. The new lanes would be financed and built by private companies in partnership with the state. The potential for this type of lane is what the highway department is studying.