A state official says Indiana will not attempt to reclaim the Indiana Toll Road, despite calls from lawmakers to take such action after its operator, ITR Concession Co., filed for bankruptcy protection last month.
Indiana does not want to assume the cost of operating and maintaining the 157-mile toll road across the northern part of the state, Kendra York, the state’s public finance director, wrote Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly (D).
“In sixty years of state operation, the Toll Road never covered its costs,” York said, reported the Times of Northwest Indiana. “In 2005, the year before the road was leased, the state of Indiana did not collect sufficient tolls to support basic road treatments, or repair the deteriorating conditions of the highway and bridges. These improvements could not have been undertaken within INDOT’s budget without neglecting other parts of the state highway system,” she stated.
Before ITR — formed by a consortium of Cintra and Macquarie — took over the road in 2006, the toll rate had not increased for 20 years. After eight years of toll increases, the highway’s profit margin is estimated to be about 82 percent, Donnelly said.
“It is important that the IFA [Indiana Finance Authority] uses its authority to ensure that the toll road is managed and operated appropriately and that passengers traveling across our state have access to safe roads and quality services,” he told the Lafayette Journal & Courier.
NCPPP
By Editor
October 30, 2014