Indiana asks tollway firm to prove financial stability
The state agency that oversees the Indiana Toll Road has given the highway's debt-saddled private operator until late November to prove that it's meeting its debt obligations.
The state agency that oversees the Indiana Toll Road has given the highway's debt-saddled private operator until late November to prove that it's meeting its debt obligations.
Companies that build private toll roads are pressing states, including Indiana, to assume more financial risk of traffic not meeting expectations, a change that benefits the operators while threatening to increase taxpayer costs.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence have pushed hard for the 47-mile link, promising it would help speed goods by truck, reduce congestion and create thousands of jobs.
The $3.8 billion that Indiana netted in 2006 from leasing the Indiana Toll Road to a foreign consortium will be mostly spent or allocated by the time the state’s next governor takes office in January
The governors of Indiana and Kentucky on Monday agreed to use tolls to pay for two new Ohio River bridges and a revamped Interstate 65 bridge over the river, all in the Louisville metropolitan area.
Truck-only toll lanes along Interstate 70 are among potential projects that could result from a controversial bill that would allow the governor to authorize toll roads without an OK from the Legislature.
It's the second rate increase since the state leased the Toll Road to a private company, and Thursday's price jump
won't be the last. The state's lease with the private company allows tolls to go up every July after next year.
A proposal to add optional toll lanes to parts of Interstates 69 and 65 raises all kinds of questions, such as how to squeeze
more lanes into the crowded I-69 corridor northeast of the city. And it’s debatable whether toll lanes could make more
money than they cost to implement.