Stimulus $s to bring open road tolling to Delaware's I-95 toll plaza

Delaware governor Jack Markell's office has announced that the state will spend federal "stimulus funds" to implement open road tolling and modernize the approaches to the notoriously congested Newark DE both-ways toll plaza on I-95 near the Maryland border. Delaware DOT will be putting out a request for proposals in the next few months for the estimated $43m project to provide 2x2 open road toll lanes through the middle of the toll plaza and widen the approaches to alleviate a pinch point that blocks traffic getting to cash lanes.

The toll plaza presently has 20 individual toll lanes with only a single lane each direction permanently set for transponders at a posted 15mph. All lanes are presently mixed cash and electronic. The space of six lanes in the center will be consumed in modernizing for 2x2 highway speed open road toll lanes with their central barrier and shoulders. There will be 14 mixed cash/electronic lanes left. (ADDITION 2009-02-13)

The approach widening part of the project still needs to get environmental permits, but DelDOT spokesman Darrel Cole says they are hopeful of getting permits from state and federal agencies and complete a procurement within the 180 days required by the US treasury for stimulus grants.

At a news conference the Governor said the project would "help our economy, and our neighbors."

About three-quarters of the traffic is non-Delaware motorists.

The toll plaza modernization has the potential to reduce travel times between New York and Washington DC by half an hour at weekends and on holidays and to improve reliability of travel times substantially at other times. It will eliminate the worst toll collection congestion point on the journey.

The New Jersey Turnpike has open road tolling two ways through Exit 1. Although the Delaware Memorial Bridge and Maryland Kennedy Highway toll plazas don't have open road tolling they have one-way toll plazas of good capacity and  transponder express lanes that operate at a good clip - 30mph (50km/hr)  or so.

CLARIFICATION: A reader offers a 'correction' pointing out that Delaware Memorial Bridge toll plaza is posted for 10mph and that Maryland's Kennedy Highway toll plaza in Perryville is signed for 15mph, but in our observation they operate at around 30mph. 2009-02-14 11:00

Another major congestion point on the route is between interchanges 6 and 9 on the NJ Turnpike which is the subject of a major widening project.

The Stimulus-$s modernization for DE/I-95 toll plaza is not the fullscale rebuild project proposed in the past which involved complete reconstruction of all toll booths, completely new systems and an overhead walkway for toll collectors. The complete rebuild project was estimated to cost over $100m.

"We are trying to make do with less," Cole told us. "We've scoped it down to make it more affordable."

Toll collectors moving from one side of the plaza to the other will have to make do with an existing tunnel under the roadway.

"It's not pretty, but we'll live with it," says Cole.

DelDOT was one of the first state agencies on the east coast to implement open road tolling - on their DE1 tollroad at Biddles Corner and Dover toll plazas in about 2000.

DelDOT is budgeting for $200m in Stimulus grants and the toll plaza modernization is the largest project chosen.

DelDOT's project description follows:

I-95 Toll Plaza Project

Description: Reconstruct and reconfigure the Newark Toll Plaza to incorporate two highway-speed E-ZPass lanes in the northbound and southbound lanes.  

Cost: Approximately $43 million.

Justification: This toll plaza experiences high levels of congestion due to the current plaza configuration. As approximately 55 percent of travelers through the plaza utilize E-ZPass, congestion would be drastically reduced with high-speed lanes. This plaza is a regular complaint of motorists traveling through this state, and leaves travelers with a negative impression – in many cases their only impression -- of Delaware, impacting reputation, business, tourism and economic development. This project was scheduled to begin construction in 2011 or 2012

Status: Design is largely complete; permitting approvals from DNREC/Army Corp needed; no right of way needed; wetland mitigation needed; a design-build process may be utilized.

TOLLROADSnews 2009-02-12 ADDITION 2009-02-13 14:20