ORLANDO, Fla. — Tolls remain suspended across Florida as the state recovers from Hurricane Ian, but the lack of toll money coming in is taking a toll on a Central Florida roadway agency.
With no toll money coming in for more than two weeks, Central Florida Expressway Authority officials said Thursday that they were getting concerned. But relief is on the way with the Florida Department of Transportation announcing Thursday evening that tolls will resume on Central Florida toll roads on Oct. 15 at 6 a.m.
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During the Central Florida Expressway Authority board meeting on Thursday, the toll agency said it is losing around $1.7 million a day and so far is down $25 million.
Read: Central Florida toll roads to remain free for now
Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended toll collections as part of the emergency efforts to help the safety and recovery efforts before and after the storm.
“And we support that. And, again, now it’s just trying to get back to life,” said Sean Parks, the Central Florida Expressway Authority board’s chairperson.
Read: DeSantis unveils new plan that could save some Central Florida commuters money on tolls
Agency staff said they are monitoring the state’s actions daily and keeping in contact with the governor’s office. Without the tolls, the agency was missing out on money used for things like road maintenance, expansions and repaving.
The concern is that if the dollar amounts gets too high, the board will have to look at potentially scaling back or delaying projects.
Read: Guide to toll roads in Central Florida
“If it’s a large amount of a fiscal impact from this toll suspension, and we’ll just start looking at the projects as a board and we’ll go from there,” Parks said.
The board plans to take a look the total impact in November and decide if any projects should be put on hold.
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