CHICAGO — Indiana Monday issued a request for qualifications for firms interested in building a new toll collection system for the Louisville-Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges Project.
The state will follow the RFQ with a request for proposals provided to prequalified vendors, officials said.
The requests are part of the creation of a new toll system for the $2.6 billion Ohio River Bridges project.
Indiana is partnering with Kentucky on the project. The two states will split the toll revenue to help pay for their respective financings.
Toll collections won't begin until 2017 when the bridges are expected to open.
Monday's RFQ is for firms interested in providing, operating, managing, and maintaining the toll system and providing back-office toll collection and customer service.
The system will cover three bridges making up the project, including electronic open road tolling and revenue collection and all related elements.
Officials from both states set toll rates at a special meeting in September.
Frequent commuters with transponders will pay $1 and cars that make less frequent trips will pay $2. Box and panel trucks will pay $5 and tractor trailers will pay $10.
Motorists who don't use transponders will be billed at higher rates. All toll rates will go up annually by 2.5% or the inflation rate based on the Consumer Price Index, whichever is greater.
