Coming off a yearlong morass of investigations and resignations, Central Florida's toll-road agency is now embarking on an ambitious goal: to build the final $2 billion piece of the Orlando beltway.

The top managers of the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority told the Orlando Sentinel in an exclusive interview this week that a toll increase and private investment are two options that will be considered in paying for the 25-mile road through the Wekiva River basin.

"We need to sharpen all these [financial] tools and see which is the best to use," said Rich Crotty, Orange County mayor and expressway-authority chairman.

The road, which would run through northwest Orange, south Lake and western Seminole counties, is the missing link in a series of toll roads meant to encircle greater Orlando. If it's completed, the beltway would provide motorists with an alternate route to traffic-clogged Interstate 4, as well as open large swaths of rural land to development.

"Closing the loop is critical," said Crotty, an agency board member since 2001 who took over as chairman in January.

Crotty and authority Executive Director Mike Snyder said they hoped to devise a tentative financing plan within six months. Public hearings on specific routes could begin as early as February or March.

"We have to complete the beltway. We've got to find a way to fund it," Snyder said.

Intricate balance

The idea of building a beltway has been debated and discussed for several decades. It has been built in small chunks since the late 1980s by the expressway authority and Florida's Turnpike as segments and extensions of State Roads 417 and 429. But agreeing on a precise route for the last remaining segment has yet to be accomplished because it involves an intricate balance of environmental, economic and transportation concerns.

The expressway authority and the Florida Department of Transportation have agreed to build the road, though few seriously expect any dirt to be turned soon.

But Charles Lee, director of advocacy for the ecological group Audubon of Florida, said the road should be built as soon as possible.

"It clearly needs a big push, and the sooner the better," said Lee, who has been involved in route discussions. He fears new development will drive up the price of land, making the project more expensive and irking homeowners who might lose their property to the planned road.

"The best way to avoid that is to move with dispatch, while the land is still open," Lee said.

But without new sources of money, experts said, work on the Wekiva leg could be delayed for 10 years. That's despite the fact that the authority annually makes more than $210 million in tolls, a figure that typically goes up several percent a year because of increased use.

There essentially are three ways for the authority to raise more funds for Wekiva: a toll increase, state funding or contributions from investors seeking a return on their money though toll revenues.

Crotty predicted toll roads will become more prevalent in the future because government at all levels will have less money to spend on new highways because of restrictions on property taxes.

"If we're not doing tolls, we're toast. Tolls become a bigger factor now than ever before," Crotty said.

A spokeswoman for Florida's Turnpike said the agency has not been approached by either Crotty or the state head of FDOT about the Wekiva segment. But the turnpike spokeswoman said her agency is willing to listen to proposals.

Private funding for toll roads has been used in several states, including Pennsylvania and Texas.

"It is a useful tool. . . . It's a very, very flexible tool," said Robert Poole, director of transportation studies at Reason Foundation, a free-market think tank in Los Angeles. But Jim Gilkeson, an associate professor of finance at the University of Central Florida, worries that investors could skimp on maintenance or construction quality to make money.

"There's something incompatible with the public good," Gilkeson said.

The agency was moving toward a toll increase of at least 25 cents at every plaza a year ago. That would have raised an additional $1.24 billion over 25 years.

Plans shelved

But those plans were shelved after revelations that former agency Chairman Allan Keen, without board knowledge, approved payments of $107,500 to a company controlled by tax critic Doug Guetzloe. Authority officials said they were seeking advice on why people disliked paying tolls. The payments triggered an upheaval that led to a scathing audit of agency books, plus the resignation of Keen and the dismissal of the authority's veteran marketing consultant.

Three major engineering contractors were told their contracts were being phased out as well.

The audit, released last month by Orange County Comptroller Martha Haynie, suggested changes, much of them designed to make the agency more financially accountable. The agency has hired, or is about to, an internal auditor, purchasing agent and in-house attorney.