Texas lawmakers approved a massive transportation bill this past weekend that includes requiring public votes on the conversion of existing freeways in the state into toll roads.

Passed in the House and Senate late Sunday, May 29, the bill is the follow-up legislation to a 300-plus-page measure signed into law in 2003 that radically changed Texas code by giving the state Transportation Department powers to build toll roads or convert free roads into “pay-to-play” roads. It now moves to Gov. Rick Perry for his signature.

Since then, toll roads have been met with public furor in some areas as residents complained roads that were promised as freeways later were set to become tollways, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

The bill – HB2702 – would not only require a public vote on any attempt by the state to convert a freeway to a tollway, but private operators of state-owned toll roads must get approval for how they will set toll rates. But the Texas Transportation Commission would not be required to set them.

It would affect the Trans-Texas Corridor, a $184 billion pet project of Gov. Rick Perry. Plans on the route call for thousands of miles of tollways, railways and utility lines crisscrossing the state.

The state already is under contract with the Spanish firm Cintra to begin designing the first 600-mile phase to run roughly parallel to Interstate 35 from San Antonio to the Oklahoma border.

Plans call for Cintra to operate and collect the tolls for 50 years.

The state also would be required to provide access to the corridor where it intersects other state and federal highways, The Associated Press reported.

In addition, the bill would prohibit movers from hauling household goods for compensation in a vehicle of any size without registering with the state.