Summer’s been slow on Missouri toll bridge
High gasoline prices have taken a toll, you might say, on traffic crossing the 10-year-old Lake of the Ozarks toll bridge. A report from Fitch Ratings says that traffic was down 10 percent in May and 12 percent in June and July, compared with the same months in 2007. The report adds:
Similar to other U.S. toll roads the bridge has experienced traffic declines due to high fuel prices and a general economic downturn. However, the discretionary nature of traffic has resulted in larger declines than at other comparable facilities. July was the sixth consecutive month in which traffic was less than the same month the previous year.
Fitch is putting the bridge’s bonds on “ratings watch negative,” and will downgrade the debt within six months if “management does not act aggressively in the interests of bondholders.”
Translated: The debt-rating company wants a fare increase. Cars currently pay $2.50 to cross between April and September and $1.50 the rest of the year. Fitch says a 30 percent fare increase would enable the bridge to meet its debt-coverage requirements and “produce strong surplus flows.”
The bridge has never drawn as much traffic as was predicted when it opened in 1998, but traffic was growing steadily until this year.
(1 votes, average: 2 out of 5)
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David Nicklaus has covered St. Louis business for more than 25 years. His column appears three days a week on the Post-Dispatch business page. 
Toll is already too high durinng the season; if it’s raised, we will avoid the bridge resulting in less revenue…