Illinois, Missouri at Odds Over Bridge Financing

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he Illinois Department of Transportation said it opposed a proposal by the Missouri DOT to allow tolls on a planned Mississippi River bridge carrying Interstate 70.

Under the Missouri proposal, the state would authorize a private company to finance, operate, build and maintain the bridge for a period of years and make its money back in revenue collected from tolls, said Deanna Venker, area engineer for MoDOT.

Construction on the new bridge, which is intended to help relieve congestion on I-70 at St. Louis, could begin as early as 2007, said Venker.

“Right now, the only way for Missouri to get the money to build this bridge is through innovative financing like a public-private partnership,” she said. “This is our way of financing the project and we have no other option at this point.”

For the full story, see the Dec. 19-26 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.