Got a bridge in Missouri I'd like to lease ya

Several of them in fact, since MDOT can't keep them in serviceable condition;

Hundreds of bridges across Missouri need repairs or replacing but the state agency that oversees bridges doesn’t have the money for the work, according to transportation officials.

The Missouri Department of Transportation says it’s still paying off debt it assumed for bridge work a few years ago and new funding sources are needed to make the necessary repairs and replacements. Meanwhile, some bridges around Missouri have to be closed rather than risk carrying traffic, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Calling Mitch Daniels!

In much of the world, but only recently in the United States, private capital has begun to play a role, most often in partnerships with public authorities. ....

If it were merely a matter of getting hands on money today that would otherwise come in over the years, such partnerships would make little sense. The goal for states is to capture far more value than an asset would be worth if it remained in public hands. That goal is often not difficult to achieve.

That's from a 2006 NY Times Op-ed by the then Governor of Indiana explaining the very elementary economic reasons why he'd leased--for 75 years--the Indiana Toll Road to a profit seeking entity for a $3.85 million dollar up front payment. Which billions Indiana then used to not only build more roads within the state, but establish a maintenance and repair fund for its existing infrastructure.

And, btw, the 'winning' bidder, Spanish-Australian consortium Cintra MacQuarie also agreed to spend another $400 million on improvements and maintenance of the asset it had leased. Which is rather a better deal for the motorists of Indiana than what Missourians are being shown, is their future;

One bridge in need of work is the Highway H bridge, which carries about 1,800 vehicles per day over the Cuivre River a few miles northwest of Troy. MoDOT snow removal trucks, as well as other heavy vehicles can no longer safely cross the bridge and have to make a 31-mile, one-way detour, said Steve Miller, chairman of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission, which governs MoDOT.

Show me the money state?