WASHINGTON — A Texas-sized roadblock looms ahead of President Donald Trump’s grand plans to overhaul the nation’s aging infrastructure.

In pursuing a $1 trillion investment in new roads and beyond, the White House wants to lean on the private sector for the vast majority of the funding. That approach would almost certainly rely on the kind of tolled projects that have become anathema in many parts of Texas.

And the tension, while not new, just keeps increasing.

The Legislature this year slammed the door on any new public-private partnerships, underscoring its distaste for the tolls that once stood at the center of Texas' road planning. But the White House has doubled down on those projects, recently making an explicit case for more toll roads.

So even though the Texas Department of Transportation has compiled a list of both tolled and non-tolled "shovel-ready" road projects — including a few in North Texas — any kind of toll-heavy infrastructure package could face a hostile reception in the Lone Star State.

“That’s not going to fly here in Texas,” said Terri Hall, director of Texans for Toll-free Highways, a group that maintains a vocal presence at the Legislature.

Trump has long placed an infrastructure revamp near the top of his policy agenda.

The push would also cover things like airports and railways, though Trump has separately asked for cuts to mass transit funding. The White House has proposed spending $200 billion in federal money over the next decade to leverage an additional $800 million in private investment.

The specifics remain to be seen. But Trump has offered some key hints, particularly as it relates to roads.

Liberal tolling policy

A White House budget fact sheet released last week referenced a variety of incentives, such as private-activity bonds, that could spur more investment. But it also said point-blank that the federal government should "liberalize tolling policy," focusing on interstate highways.

The implication is clear.

“I don’t think there is any way around it,” said Chris Lippincott, a transportation consultant and former TxDOT spokesman. “You are going to see tolling components. You’re going to see investment from the private sector, including from international investors.”

President Donald Trump is pushing for more infrastructure projects to rely on public-private partnerships, which could mean toll roads. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

That approach isn’t an unknown commodity in Texas, where transportation needs keep ballooning along with the population.

Transportation funding in Texas is still largely reliant on the state and federal gasoline taxes that drivers pay at the pump. But those levies haven’t been raised in 20-odd years, even as inflation and other factors have reduced their purchasing power.

So the state, under former Gov. Rick Perry, turned to public-private partnerships as a way to complete massive highway projects.

Tolls are often — but not always — part of that equation to entice the private sector with a desirable revenue stream. And the results can been seen simply by looking at the tangle of managed toll lanes that's cropped up in North Texas.

Dallas’ $2.6 billion LBJ Express project, which features tolls on some lanes, could almost serve as a model for Trump’s infrastructure push.

“These tools work,” said Deirdre Delisi, a longtime Perry adviser and former chairwoman of the Texas Transportation Commission. “They don’t work for every project. But they work for those big, expensive, complicated projects.”

D-FW toll fatigue

But the era is now in the rearview mirror.

Toll fatigue has taken hold in urban regions like Dallas, where the North Texas Tollway Authority also has its own set of toll roads. And that backlash has reached the Legislature -- who've heard from voters, including the conservative Texans who make up Trump's base

State lawmakers in recent years tied new funding for transportation projects to the requirement that it not be used for toll roads. And that philosophy again won out this year, as the Legislature rejected a bill that would've OK'd several "comprehensive development agreements."

“I’m not going to support toll roads at all,” said state Sen. Don Huffines, R-Dallas. “It’s bad government policy.”

That means a policy collision could be imminent.

Some fear that the state could lose out on much-needed transportation cash while other states clean up under Trump’s push. Others worry just the opposite, that the allure of those federal dollars could cause Texas officials to lose their nerve in standing up to tolling projects.

Sen. Don Huffines, R-Dallas, is a vocal critic of toll roads. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)

And the list sent to the White House by TxDOT and Gov. Greg Abbott’s office hedges.

The catalog, first reported by American Public Media, outlines several "shovel-ready" projects that might fit Trump's call. The listing, which also includes things like harbor dredging efforts, features both tolled and non-tolled highway projects across the state.

A portion of the big LBJ East project in northern Dallas County — with tolled managed lanes — made the cut. But so did a non-tolled stretch of State Highway 360 in Tarrant County.

Some experts said that kind of mix is perhaps more realistic, given that some projects, especially in rural areas, simply don’t produce enough revenue to encourage private investment. But they also said the White House needs to offer more clarity on its priorities.

And so the tension over tolling isn’t likely to go away anytime soon.

“I find it hard to believe that everything is going to be funded through the private sector,” said David Ellis, a research scientist at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. “There are going to have to be other funds available.”