The Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority, which is proposing a controversial Alaska public-private partnership toll bridge project, may need more funding from the state if toll revenues fall short, according to local press reports.
Authority chairman Michael Foster told the Anchorage Daily News that traffic forecasts show toll revenue will be able to replenish reserves paid by the state after the first few years, but the Legislature could be asked for more.
Two bills are moving through the Legislature that would allocate around $150 million for a reserve fund to act as a credit enhancement and give the project's obligations the benefit of Alaska's Aaa Moody's Investors Service rating. The project has a $680 million cost estimate.
The bridge and causeway would link central Anchorage with the Port Mackenzie area of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, across the two-mile-wide ocean inlet called the Knik Arm. The Legislature formed KABATA in 2003. The project includes an 8,200-foot bridge and an 800-foot tunnel near the Anchorage end.
The authority has invested $57 million through the end of June while $60 million of federal and state appropriation remains available for project development.
The bridge also has a federal allocation of $600 million in private-activity bonds. KABATA is trying to get authority from the state to raise its cap for issuing bonds to $600 million from $500 million to potentially issue all of those bonds.
In July, KABATA offered a new RFQ from potential builders as it retooled its financing plan. The move comes despite the plan's latest hurdle, a lawsuit filed earlier this month by the municipality of Anchorage to get the federal government to drop support for the project.
