§17-17-22. Tolls to be charged for bond payment; intrastate and interstate bridges included in one issue; purchasing of existing bridges; disposition of tolls.

Tolls shall be fixed, charged, and collected for transit over such bridges owned by the state and shall be so fixed and adjusted, in respect of the aggregate of tolls from the bridge or bridges owned by the state for which a single issue of bonds is issued, as to provide a fund sufficient to pay the principal and interest of such issue of bonds and to provide an additional fund to pay the cost of maintaining, repairing, and operating such bridge or bridges, subject, however, to any applicable law or regulation of the United States of America now in force or hereafter to be enacted or made. Two or more bridges owned by the state may be included in one issue of bonds, and intrastate and interstate bridges may be grouped in the same issue: Provided, That no existing bridge or bridges owned by the state shall be acquired by purchase, eminent domain, or otherwise, unless the commissioner of highways shall have determined that the income therefrom, based upon the toll receipts for the next preceding fiscal or calendar year, will be sufficient to pay all expenses of operating and maintaining such bridge, in addition to the interest and sinking fund requirements of any bonds to be issued to pay the purchase price thereof, or, if such existing bridge or bridges owned by the state are to be combined with any other bridge or bridges, either then existing or thereafter to be constructed or acquired by purchase, eminent domain, or otherwise, as provided in §17-17-23b of this code, unless the commissioner of highways shall have determined that the income from such combined bridges, based upon the toll receipts for the next preceding fiscal or calendar year in the case of any existing bridge or bridges and upon estimates of future toll receipts in the case of any bridge or bridges to be constructed, will be sufficient to pay all expenses of operating and maintaining such combined bridges, in addition to the interest and sinking fund requirements of any bonds issued to pay the purchase price of such existing bridge or bridges and the interest and sinking fund requirements of any bonds issued to pay the cost of construction, acquiring, modernizing, repairing, reconstructing, or improving any bridge or bridges and approaches thereto, with which such existing bridge or bridges are to be so combined. The tolls from the bridge or bridges for which a single issue of bonds is issued, except such part thereof, as may be necessary to pay such cost of maintaining, repairing, and operating during any period in which such cost is not otherwise provided for (during which period the tolls may be reduced accordingly), shall be transmitted each month to the West Virginia Municipal Bond Commission and by it placed in a special fund which is hereby pledged to and charged with the payment of the principal of such bonds and the interest thereon, and to the redemption or repurchase of such bonds, such special fund to be a fund for all such bonds without distinction or priority of one over another. The moneys in such special fund, less a reserve for payment of interest, if not used by the West Virginia Municipal Bond Commission within a reasonable time for the purchase of bonds for cancellation at a price not exceeding the market price and not exceeding the redemption price, shall be applied to the redemption of bonds by lot at the redemption price then applicable. Notwithstanding the foregoing, payments of principal and interest on any bonds owned by the United States or any governmental agency or department thereof may be made by the governing body directly thereto.

Any bridge or bridges constructed or acquired by purchase, eminent domain, or otherwise, or reconstructed, repaired, or improved, under the provisions of this article and forming a connecting link between two or more state highways, or providing a river crossing for a state highway, are hereby adopted as a part of the state road system, but no such bridge or bridges shall be constructed or acquired by purchase, eminent domain, or otherwise, or reconstructed, repaired, or improved by the state, under the provisions of this article without the approval in writing of the commissioner of highways and the Governor. If there be in the funds of the West Virginia Municipal Bond Commission an amount insufficient to pay the interest and sinking fund on any bonds issued for the purpose of constructing or acquiring by purchase, eminent domain, or otherwise, or reconstructing, repairing, or improving, such bridge or bridges, the commissioner of highways is authorized and directed to allocate to said commission, from the state road fund, an amount sufficient to pay the interest on said bonds and/or the principal thereof, as either may become due and payable.