Two Kentucky senators are co-sponsoring a bill that would ban tolls on existing Interstates, according to the Courier-Journal.
Sens. Perry Clark and Denise Harper Angel, both Democrats from Louisville, have signed on to legislation entitled “Keeping Kentucky’s Freeways Free Act of 2012.”
Tolls are expected to be levied on the existing Interstate 65 bridge that joins northern Kentucky with southern Indiana in the long-planned mega-Ohio River Bridges Project.
Permission from the Federal Highway Administration is being sought for the tolling.
Clark told the paper the bill has little chance of passing.
“We just think it’s wrong to double-tax infrastructure that people have already paid for,” he said.
The Louisville and Southern Indiana Bridges Authority is expected to begin reviewing financing plans for the estimated $2.6 billion project in the next few weeks.
The two states decided to split up construction and financing of the project after determining that they would use different procurement methods.
Kentucky plans to use a traditional, publicly funded process while hiring contractors to design and build its projects.
Indiana is using a public-private partnership to design, build, finance, operate,and maintain its projects.
Each state will be responsible for $1.3 billion of the cost.
