by Associated Press
Tuesday, Jul. 18, 2006 at 9:52 AM
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 nearly four (b) billion dollars 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.
Between 1980 and 2004, people drove 94 percent more highway miles, according to Federal Highway Administration statistics. But the number of new highway lane miles rose by only six percent.
Washington is not likely to produce more money to build roads. The federal highway will have a balance of about 16 (b) billion-dollars by the end of 2006 and will run out in 2009 or 2010, according to White House and congressional estimates.
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