A new resolution by Louisville’s Metro Council pushes top officials in Indiana and Kentucky to use federal funds to remove tolls on the RiverLink bridges across the Ohio River. RiverLink tolling is in place on three bridges connecting Louisville Metro and Southern Indiana.
One of the councilmembers sponsoring the bill, David James, said that while infrastructure funds are available, the resolution hopes to ask the Indiana and Kentucky governors to change the toll payments on the three bridges.
“This is a resolution asking the governors to consider along with the Northern Kentucky bridge to think about using some of the infrastructure funding to either reduce, modify, eliminate tolls,” James said.
James is one of seven Metro Council members sponsoring this bipartisan effort, which is on the public works committee’s Tuesday meeting agenda.
The resolution’s sponsors include five Democrats — James, Markus Winkler, Jecorey Arthur, Keisha Dorsey and Mark Fox — and Republicans Anthony Piagentini and Scott Reed.
“I have no idea what the outcome will be,” James continued. “You know politics is a contact sport, so we'll see how to turns out.”
The three bridges this would affect are: Abraham Lincoln Bridge (I-65 North), the John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge (I-65 South) and the Lewis and Clark Bridge (SR 265/KY 841) connecting Prospect, Kentucky, and Utica, Indiana.
This comes weeks after a plan by Kentucky and Ohio to seek up to $2 billion for a toll-free bridge near the Brent Spence Bridge between Cincinnati and Covington, Kentucky.
The rules governing funds to retire tolls or even pay down some outstanding toll-backed debt has not been finalized, according to a statement last month by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.
