Consultants say the authority should consider raising the toll on the Pell Bridge, above, which hasn’t changed since 1969.

The Providence Journal / Bob Thayer

PROVIDENCE — Financial companies have approached the state Turnpike and Bridge Authority repeatedly to ask about buying or leasing the Pell and Mount Hope bridges, officials said yesterday.

Meanwhile, the authority made public a consulting study saying it faces a long-term $200-million-plus deficit because its principal revenue source, tolls, probably won’t keep up with the cost of maintaining the bridges. The authority’s consultants offered alternatives including increasing tolls for the first time since the Pell Bridge opened in 1969.

Authority Chairman David A. Darlington said the two developments aren’t related, and that the authority has no intention of trying to cover the deficit by selling the bridges. He also said the approaches to the authority on possible sale or lease of the bridges “don’t appear to be realistic projects.”

“We have not yet been approached by anyone who’s come back” for more discussions, he said. However, he said that if a plausible proposal turned up, the authority would put it before the governor and the General Assembly.

“We’re the custodians” of the bridges, he said. “It’s the public’s asset.” If there’s a proposal that would be to the state’s benefit, he said, “We’d be happy to do what we can to facilitate it.”

Darlington said authority officials have met with representatives from several firms including two financial giants, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. He said that the most recent meeting took place within the last two weeks with a New York company that was representing a group from Australia, although he would not name the parties.

He said that the companies mentioned figures in the $250-million to $300-million range, but that “they didn’t seem to be interested unless someone would agree to a large and sustained toll increase.”

(For comparison, the state Department of Transportation estimates it will spend more than $150 million to replace the Sakonnet River Bridge.)

Proposals to “privatize” public facilities are relatively new in the United States, but they are spreading, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The deals usually don’t involve actual sales, but rather lease agreements. The governmental body that owns the asset sells the right to operate and maintain it during a specific period to a private entity, which collects all the revenue it brings in during that time. For example, a pair of Spanish and Australian companies paid $3.8 billion last year to operate the Indiana Toll Road, part of Interstate 80, for 75 years.

Rumors of the discussions about the Rhode Island bridges are circulating at the State House. Yesterday, House Finance Committee Chairman Steven M. Costantino, D-Providence, said there has been discussion among legislators regarding sale of the bridges, but “I haven’t seen a serious proposal.”

“I think the devil’s in the details,” Costantino said. “I would absolutely be opposed to any sale that’s a one-time shot to be spent on ongoing costs [general expenditures].”

Governor Carcieri’s office didn’t respond to inquiries about what the governor thinks of the idea. The governor has energetically pushed for privatization in other areas of government, often battling with an unenthusiastic General Assembly.

The authority has avoided raising tolls for four decades, as rising traffic volumes brought increased revenue that kept up with its expenses. Traffic increased about 6 percent per year, from 1.3 million vehicles in 1970 to more than 10 million vehicles last year.

The authority used the money to keep its bridges “in a state of good repair” compared with similar bridges elsewhere, according to the study, by PB Consult Inc., a New York-based management consulting firm. For example, the Pell Bridge’s original concrete deck is still in use, “well beyond the 25- to 30-year expected service life of a bridge deck.”

But traffic volume recently flattened out. The consultants say they can’t predict future volume, but suggest that it isn’t likely to rise as fast as in the past.

Unless something changes, the study says, the agency’s income will fall behind its expenses by $223 million between now and 2027.

Meanwhile, as the bridges age, their maintenance needs will increase, the consultants say. Putting off repairs “is not cost-effective,” with deterioration accelerating, making repair costs higher. In fact, they say, the authority in 2003 started putting off some of the more expensive maintenance work.

The authority takes in slightly less than $14 million per year, practically all of it from the tolls it charges for crossing the Pell Bridge. (It gave up charging tolls on the Mount Hope Bridge in 1998.) The one-way toll for cars and other two-axle vehicles is $2, with tokens discounted when bought in quantity. Three-axle and larger vehicles pay $3 to $5.

One possibility the study offers would raise the basic cash toll from $2 to $3. That and a variety of other toll increases could bring in from $119 million to $149 million over the 20 years, the consultants estimate.

Another possibility is resuming tolls on the Mount Hope Bridge, which the consultants estimate would raise $91 million.

They also discuss privatizing the authority in a different way, by hiring private companies to do all of its operations and maintenance work. But the consultants said that would probably produce “little or no cost savings.”

Other possibilities the study raises include eliminating token discounts, gaining $17 million, and increasing tolls during the summer, for $21 million.

The study also suggests some other, less profitable, ways to increase revenue, including leasing space in conduits under the bridges for telecommunications lines and on top of them for cellular antennae and selling advertising space at the Jamestown toll plaza, on the roadway and on toll receipts.

The consultants also brought up the possibility that the hitherto financially independent authority could ask the state government for money, although Darlington said that is “not a real prospect.”

With staff reports from Steve Peoples, Journal State House Bureau

blandis@projo.com