The Pennsylvania Turnpike is replacing toll booths with “open road tolling” on a stretch of the highway, allowing drivers to go through toll areas without stopping. NBC10’s Miguel Martinez-Valle has the details.
Big changes are coming to the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
On Wednesday, the Turnpike Commission announced they're switching from stop and go tolling to open road tolling starting early next year.
The Turnpike Commission opted for the departure from the traditional tolls for a couple of reasons. They say open road tolling will make traveling on highways more convenient by eliminating the stop-and-go method.
“I feel like it would just make it smoother, create less confusion," Conshohocken resident Kathleen Carpenter told NBC10.
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Drivers will see the existing gantries turned on and used starting January 5 east of Reading and on the Northeast Extension.
Crews will also start knocking down old toll booths in the area at this time. The commission plans to expand west to the rest of the system in early 2027.
“Safety is the biggest driver. Unfortunately we have customers that actually have sideswipe accidents with our toll plazas every day sometimes we have people that sideswipe each other because they’re trying navigate in and out of those toll plaza lanes," Construction Engineering Manager of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Alan Williams.
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Officials say that while the system captures speed information, they are not authorized to enforce speed, but the new technology will change how some people are charged.
The turnpike won't use weight as a charging factor moving forward. Instead, the cameras scan the height and number of axles, which mostly impacts commercial vehicles like trucks.
For most cars they just scan the easy pass, although the 5% toll increase passed earlier this month will go into effect next year.
Officials say the $600 million worth of investments over the last two decades, including the new tolling system, is expected to save the Turnpike Commission about $25 million a year.
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