Penn Pike opens highway speed electronic toll lane with a second rebuild of Gateway Plaza
Posted Sat, 2007-07-28 12:40
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission on Thursday July 26 opened an open road toll (ORT) lane at the Gateway toll plaza on the Mainline's far western end after the second rebuild in four years. The lane which has concrete barrier separation from traffic stopping to pay, caters to motorists traveling eastbound into Pennsylvania from the Ohio Turnpike, allowing them to pass the toll point at full highway speed.
The Turnpike Commission calls this 'Express E-ZPass.' The first Express E-ZPass was at the Warrendale Toll Plaza in July 2004
where there is provision for 2x2 lanes but at present traffic volumes only a single lane each direction is catered to. [see http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/781]
The second open road tolling on the Pennsylvania Turnpike was at the busy Mid County toll plaza north of Philadelphia with 2x2 lanes of the highway speed electronic tolling, opening to traffic in November 2005. That serves the Northeast Extension (I-476). [see http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/1357]
The far eastern end of the Turnpike will get highway speed electronic tolling as part of the construction of an interchange with I-95, widening of the Turnpike and a new bridge across the Delaware River to connect to the New Jersey Turnpike's spur - a multi-billion dollar project not likely to materialize for several years.
Gateway plaza caters to only 11k veh/day
A Turnpike statement says that 11k veh/day pass the Gateway Turnpike which is located 1.5 miles (2.5km) inside the Ohio border at what is called Mile Post 2. 22% of the traffic is heavy trucks.
The toll is $3 for cars and $3 for each additional axle to 6 axles. The toll is levied eastbound only. Westbound traffic has traveled free since June 2003 when local tolls were abolished otherwise on the western 50km (30miles) and a new Warrendale toll plaza built as the western end of the ticket system.
Gateway fiasco of two rebuilds in four years plus $40m+
In an amazing mistake of planning the Gateway toll plaza was rebuilt in 2003 without provision for highspeed electronic tolling. At that time the Turnpike spent
some $18m rebuilding the Gateway toll plaza as a traditional stop-to-pay barrier plaza - even while it was opening its first highspeed electronic tolling just down the track at the Warrendale toll plaza.
To remedy that mistake the Turnpike has just spent another $22m demolishing much of what it built in 2003 at the Gateway Plaza with a second rebuild providing for the highway speed electronic tolling eastbound and ending tolling westbound.
What with construction and demolitions of three year old structures and rebuilds over $40m has been spent on toll systems for one of the lowest volume stretches of the mainline!
On the new Gateway plaza there are five cash lanes (Lanes 1 through 5) and a sixth slowspeed E-ZPass lane signed for 5mph, as well as the new highspeed Express E-ZPass lane. A second Express E-ZPass lane will be opened in late 2008 when adjacent roadworks are complete, the Turnpike says.
Most of the Pennsylvania Turnpike tolling has been built trip-based, based on a ticket issued on entry and registering the entry place that is handed to a toll collector on exit allowing the trip to computed and the toll levied for the whole trip. This means that
apart from the ends the tolling points are on entry and exit ramps. Those ramps are at an interface with local surface roads so highway speed electronic tolling is less compelling than on barrier systems where tolling is at points along the mainline.
However the "extensions" of the Turnpike - spurs like the Beaver Valley Expressway PA60 and the Greensburg Bypass PA66 - have been built with point tolls at mainline plazas, as well as the western end conversion to point tolling. Along with point tolling has gone an axle based vehicle classification system that bears no relation to the weight-based classification on the mainline.
Electronic tolling success
Electronic tolling is considered a major success on the Turnpike as a whole despite fiascoes like the Gateway Plaza double-build. Launched in December 2000, the Turnpike now has 860k active Pennsylvania issued transponders based on 584k accounts and does about 240k transponder transactions per day, slightly over half the total toll transactions.
TOLLROADSnews 2007-07-28
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission on Thursday July 26 opened an open road toll (ORT) lane at the Gateway toll plaza on the Mainline's far western end after the second rebuild in four years. The lane which has concrete barrier separation from traffic stopping to pay, caters to motorists traveling eastbound into Pennsylvania from the Ohio Turnpike, allowing them to pass the toll point at full highway speed. The Turnpike Commission calls this 'Express E-ZPass.' The first Express E-ZPass was at the Warrendale Toll Plaza in July 2004
where there is provision for 2x2 lanes but at present traffic volumes only a single lane each direction is catered to. [see http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/781]The second open road tolling on the Pennsylvania Turnpike was at the busy Mid County toll plaza north of Philadelphia with 2x2 lanes of the highway speed electronic tolling, opening to traffic in November 2005. That serves the Northeast Extension (I-476). [see http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/1357]
The far eastern end of the Turnpike will get highway speed electronic tolling as part of the construction of an interchange with I-95, widening of the Turnpike and a new bridge across the Delaware River to connect to the New Jersey Turnpike's spur - a multi-billion dollar project not likely to materialize for several years.
Gateway plaza caters to only 11k veh/day
A Turnpike statement says that 11k veh/day pass the Gateway Turnpike which is located 1.5 miles (2.5km) inside the Ohio border at what is called Mile Post 2. 22% of the traffic is heavy trucks.
The toll is $3 for cars and $3 for each additional axle to 6 axles. The toll is levied eastbound only. Westbound traffic has traveled free since June 2003 when local tolls were abolished otherwise on the western 50km (30miles) and a new Warrendale toll plaza built as the western end of the ticket system.
Gateway fiasco of two rebuilds in four years plus $40m+
In an amazing mistake of planning the Gateway toll plaza was rebuilt in 2003 without provision for highspeed electronic tolling. At that time the Turnpike spent
some $18m rebuilding the Gateway toll plaza as a traditional stop-to-pay barrier plaza - even while it was opening its first highspeed electronic tolling just down the track at the Warrendale toll plaza. To remedy that mistake the Turnpike has just spent another $22m demolishing much of what it built in 2003 at the Gateway Plaza with a second rebuild providing for the highway speed electronic tolling eastbound and ending tolling westbound.
What with construction and demolitions of three year old structures and rebuilds over $40m has been spent on toll systems for one of the lowest volume stretches of the mainline!
On the new Gateway plaza there are five cash lanes (Lanes 1 through 5) and a sixth slowspeed E-ZPass lane signed for 5mph, as well as the new highspeed Express E-ZPass lane. A second Express E-ZPass lane will be opened in late 2008 when adjacent roadworks are complete, the Turnpike says.
Most of the Pennsylvania Turnpike tolling has been built trip-based, based on a ticket issued on entry and registering the entry place that is handed to a toll collector on exit allowing the trip to computed and the toll levied for the whole trip. This means that
apart from the ends the tolling points are on entry and exit ramps. Those ramps are at an interface with local surface roads so highway speed electronic tolling is less compelling than on barrier systems where tolling is at points along the mainline.However the "extensions" of the Turnpike - spurs like the Beaver Valley Expressway PA60 and the Greensburg Bypass PA66 - have been built with point tolls at mainline plazas, as well as the western end conversion to point tolling. Along with point tolling has gone an axle based vehicle classification system that bears no relation to the weight-based classification on the mainline.
Electronic tolling success
Electronic tolling is considered a major success on the Turnpike as a whole despite fiascoes like the Gateway Plaza double-build. Launched in December 2000, the Turnpike now has 860k active Pennsylvania issued transponders based on 584k accounts and does about 240k transponder transactions per day, slightly over half the total toll transactions.
TOLLROADSnews 2007-07-28