A North Texas highway group has agreed to add a Denton County highway to the state’s list of toll roads.

The Dallas area’s Regional Transportation Council voted unanimously Oct. 14 to impose tolls on the new Texas Highway 121 under construction from the southern end of the 121 Bypass near Coppell to the Dallas North Tollway in Plano and Frisco.

The measure must be approved by the Texas Transportation Commission, which should vote on it in November, The Dallas Morning News reported. If approved, tolls would be collected by overhead electronic equipment that would read TollTags.

To help reduce costs, no tollbooths are planned. Electronic toll collection could start when construction ends by 2008.

The tolling plan likely won’t be the last for the state.

The transportation commission mandates that all major new road projects and expansions be studied to see if toll financing is viable.

Regional leaders have approved tolling the planned 11.4-mile extension of Highway 161 through Irving and Grand Prairie.

Collin County officials are studying imposing tolls along their portion of Highway 121. North Texas also has the 21.5-mile Dallas North Tollway and the 29.2-mile Bush Turnpike.

Road planners, however, put the brakes on a proposal to convert an eight-mile stretch of highway in northwest Harris County into a toll road to fund a northward extension.

Instead, they opted to seek other funding options for Highway 249, the Tomball Parkway, including a mix of free and high-occupancy toll lanes.

The decision to not toll the stretch of road follows a similar conclusion reached last month on the state’s far west side.

In El Paso, a task force turned aside a recommendation to toll motorists on Interstate 10 or Loop 375 to pay for road improvements. Instead, the group opted to consider tolling only large trucks on a possible new tollway in far west El Paso County. It would be called the Northeast Parkway.

The task force estimates the toll road would cost more than $100 million.

The state highway department says construction could start in the next five years.