Toll rates for bridges in the Louisville area are increasing by nearly 4% on Wednesday. Drivers crossing the I-65 Abraham Lincoln Bridge, I-65 Kennedy Bridge or the SR 265/KY 841 Lewis and Clark Bridge must pay a toll each way.

Toll Rate Increase

On Wednesday, passenger car toll rates will jump from $5.36 to $5.57 when paying by mail. These tolls help pay for the construction of these bridges, which was completed in 2016. RiverLink spokesperson Mindy Peterson told WLKY that the question she gets the most from people is ‘haven’t we already paid for this?’ The short answer is, no, we have not paid for the full cost of building the bridges.

Tolling began in 2016, once the bi-state bridge construction project was finished. That project cost $2.3 billion. The money from each toll helps pay for that $2.3 billion that Kentucky and Indiana are still paying off. In addition to the initial $2.3 billion, interest on the project must be paid, which according to RiverLink spokesperson Mindy Peterson, will take several decades.

‘2053 is the projection for when financial obligations will be met,’ Peterson said. ‘It’s almost like having a 40-plus year mortgage on a $2.3 billion project. And we are several years into that mortgage now, so to speak. But it continues, and so does the money that we owe.’ Toll rates increase annually by 2.5% unless the rate of inflation is higher that year.

Tolls have been increasing annually since 2018, increasing the cost to pay by mail by over $3 in the last decade. New tolls will range from $2.79 to $16.62, depending on the type of vehicle and whether the vehicle has a transponder.

Original reporting: WLKY Louisville — read the source article.