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[quote user="schlimm"] And many toll roads never fulfilled their original mission of paying of the bondholders in X years and becoming freeways.  Instead they find ways (expansion, etc.) to remain toll roads forever: PA, OH, NJ, Garden State, IL, IN, and closer to TX, OK, just to name a few.  Many have been in business over 50 years, the PA Turnpike Authority since 1937. [/quote] From my perspective the key point is that the roads were paid for directly by the users.  They were not paid for out of general revenues.  The users knew up front what it cost them to use the roadway.   I don't recall that an objective of the Pennsylvania Turnpike was to pay off the bondholders and remove the tolls from the roadway.  The original highway ran from just west of Harrisburg to just east of Pittsburgh, along a route that had been laid out initially for a railroad to compete with the Pennsylvania. As I remember the story, the railroad right-of-way was funded at least in part by the New York Central, which was in a twist with the Pennsylvania over something that I have forgotten.  Subsequently, as the road proved to be successful, it was extended to the Ohio state line and the New Jersey state line, with a northward extension to Scranton.  The tolls collected on the initial portion of the roadway were used to help pay for the extensions and maintain the highway.  The turnpike is maintenance intensive.
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