ADOT Head Pushes for Privatization of Rest Areas

PHOENIX (AP) — The head of Arizona's Department of Transportation is pushing for a change in federal law that would allow states to bring on private contractors to operate rest stops.

ADOT Director John Halikowski said this month at a transportation conference that the change would help Arizona and other cash-strapped states that have closed rest areas. Thirteen of the Arizona's 18 highway rest stops were shut down last fall due to a lack of funds.

Federal law only allows states to privatize rest stops built before the expansive Interstate Highway Act of 1956.

Halikowski says in a written statement that privatized rest areas could be self-supporting. The state could pay a contractor to manage the rest areas or allow a contractor to run a business at the rest area.