WASHINGTON -- Roads and bridges built by U.S. taxpayers are starting to be sold off, and so far foreign-owned companies are doing the buying.
On a single day in June, an Australian-Spanish partnership paid $3.8 billion to lease the Indiana Toll Road. An Australian company bought a 99-year lease on Virginia's Pocahontas Parkway, and Texas officials decided to let a Spanish-American partnership build and run a toll road from Austin to Seguin for 50 years.
Developer Cintra-Zachry will invest more than $1 billion to build the remaining 40 miles of State Highway 130 from Austin to Seguin. In return, Cintra-Zachry will receive a portion of the tolls for 50 years.
The financing package will lift the financial burden from Caldwell,
Guadalupe and Travis counties.
Some experts welcome the trend. Robert Poole, transportation director for the conservative Reason Foundation, said private investors can raise more money than politicians to build new roads because these kind of owners are willing to raise tolls. He said they depoliticize the tolling decision, and that foreign companies have purchased infrastructure in Europe for years.
The Bush administration's plan to let a foreign company manage U.S. ports met a storm of protest in February. But plans to sell or lease highways to companies outside the United States have not met such resistance.
John Foote, senior fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, said the government can take over a highway in an emergency. But he objects to selling roads just to raise cash.
But that is just what Chicago has done. Last year, the city sold a 99-year lease on the eight-mile Chicago Skyway for $1.83 billion to the same Australian-Spanish partnership that leased the Indiana Toll Road.
Chicago used the money to pay off debt and fund road projects. Skyway tolls rose 50 cents to $2.50. By 2017, they will reach $5.
