The Abraham Lincoln Bridge

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Toll rates for bridges over the Ohio River will increase July 1.

RiverLink said that rates for two-axle vehicles, including passenger cars and motorcycles, will rise to $2.15 for motorists with a prepaid account and transponder. People with a prepaid account but without a transponder will have to pay $3.24 to cross the bridges. People without a prepaid account and transponder will have to pay $4.31. Tolls for larger vehicles and those with trailers are higher. Semitrailers have to pay as much as $12.93 per crossing.

Tolls are collected on the Interstate 65 Abraham Lincoln Bridge, the I-65 Kennedy Bridge and state routes 265/841 Lewis and Clark Bridge that connects Prospect, Kentucky, and Utica, Indiana.

Tolling revenue pays for operations and maintenance of the bridges and for the $2.3 billion in construction costs.

Kentucky and Indiana officials this week also said that they will seek a new contract for RiverLink’s toll collection work and customer service centers, a move that targets the tolling system’s areas of longstanding concern.

The maneuver means that the states could develop new standards for the toll system’s “back office” work: the behind-the-scenes, daily task of reading license plates, ensuring drivers are billed properly and complaints handled swiftly.

It also raises the possibility that officials may eye a call center — and its jobs — closer to Louisville and southern Indiana. The work now is done in Texas and central Indiana, but there have been previous efforts to move the call center to Kentuckiana.

With traffic declines caused by stay-at-home orders and other repercussions, RiverLink will be challenged to meet its revenue goals for the first time since opening in early 2017.

A consultant had predicted about $108.4 million in toll collections during the current fiscal year that ends in June, but with two months left, revenues stand at $88.6 million.

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