As Virginia’s General Assembly continues its record-shattering bickering session over how to pay for transportation fixes, private companies are spending billions of dollars to buy toll roads here and across the country and pledging to build more.
Transurban Group, Australia’s second-largest toll road owner, last week agreed to lease the Pocahontas Parkway in Richmond for $611 million for 99 years, gaining its first U.S. highway. The company is also part of a consortium ready to spend $913 million to build High Occupancy Toll, or HOT, lanes on Interstate 95 from the 14th Street Bridge to Massaponax and another $900 million to add the lanes to portions of the Interstate 495 Beltway. The company also bid for operating rights for the Dulles Toll Road last year.
