It's a give and take usually. It's not always a raw deal for the public, unless you think paying tolls in general is a raw deal.
IIRC the Cline bridge proposal was unsolicited, so Figg and their investors saw strong potential in this project without needing to be persuaded. The state and local governments, for their part, did not saddle UBP with a ton of unrelated expenses, like rebuilding the approach roads, adding more local access ramps, or building a 4-lane bridge that would be oversized for the actual demand. As an outside observer, it seems they made sensible decisions to control costs, minimize risk and set up the bridge for fiscal sustainability so I'm not sure if they would demand a safety net from the public.
Most of Cline Ave is truck traffic heading to the steel mills, so it should be relatively steady, reliable traffic. The US steel industry isn't in freefall anymore.
https://www.nwitimes.com/business/lo...5d71508e9.html
This article seems to indicate that the fiscal risk is squarely on UBP, but in return they have restricted the ability of East Chicago to build any new free bridges that might compete.