ohio turnpike

Ohio Turnpike Commission officials are reconsidering aspects of their new vehicle classification following complaints of unfairness by bicycle enthusiasts and others with roof loads. October 1 last year when E-ZPass came into operation on the Turnpike they also introduced a complete new vehicle classification schedule, and a new toll system. The Turnpike was advised by general engineering consultant Jacobs and the contractor was TransCore.

Local press are calling it a $35k golden handshake for toll collectors at the Ohio Turnpike. Turnpike executive director George Distel says it is strictly a "voluntary separation incentive plan" - which we say deserves an acronym: VSIP (vee-sip). Fulltime employees who volunteer to leave the Turnpike will get the $35k VSIP.

E-ZPass electronic tolling is doing "way better" on the Ohio Turnpike, the executive-director George Distel tells us six days after the October 1 start-up. "Each day we're improving.

An errant truck crashed into a toll booth at the Ohio Turnpike's Westgate mainline toll plaza Sunday night. The toll collector in the struck toll booth was able to clamber out a window of the booth, according to early reports.

The Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article Jan 30 on spin-off manufacturing technologies in what they called the Ohio Turnpike corridor titled " Car industry slump imperils role in spurring innovation."

And they showed the manufacturing plants mentioned in the article on a map of the Turnpike.

Ohio Turnpike Commission's board has approved public hearings on new toll rates to take effect the fourth quarter of 2009 when electronic tolling is due to begin. The proposal also involves a second round of increases Jan 1, 2012. In late 2009 the Commission will keep current toll rates for cars using transponders, but hike the cash toll rates substantially - for cars by 48%.

What looks like a classic fall-asleep-at-the-wheel crash occurred at 21:55 (9:55pm) Saturday night on the Ohio Turnpike leaving the tractor-trailer driver and two boys dead in the wreckage. AP quotes a state highway patrol officer as saying the tractor-trailer carrying a load of apples eastbound crashed into an overpass.

Rare peregrine falcons bred in captivity and released into the wild along the Cuyahoga River valley south of Cleveland Ohio have chosen the big Turnpike bridge as a nesting place, according to local reports. Bird enthusiasts and the Ohio department of natural resources confirmed the falcon nesting.

There are more common eagle nests nearby.

There's a major fight in Ohio over legislation to earmark revenues of the Ohio Turnpike to support state borrowing for spending programs that supposedly would create jobs. Dem Gov Ted Strickland initiated the plan earlier this month under which the Turnpike would provide $20m a year to the state to pay interest on debt for a make-work program of spending.

The news is hardly out that Gary Suhadolnik is leaving and the Cleveland Plain Dealer declares a Democrat pol looking for a job is "the front-runner to take his place." The anointed pol is George Distel, a five term state representative for Ashtabula in the northeast corner of the state. Distel is not eligible to run for re-election this November because of term limit laws.

Gary Suhadolnik executive director of the Ohio Turnpike Commission since January 2003 told his board of directors yesterday he is stepping down June 30. The move is a surprise - to us anyway. Turnpike Commission chair Joseph Balog says Suhadolnik, 57, will be working to ensure a smooth transition to a new exec-director.

Two members of an Australian rockband driving between performances in Detroit MI and Brooklyn NY were killed Thursday morning and three others injured on the Ohio Turnpike. Their SUV apparently crashed after the driver - one of those killed - swerved to avoid a deer in the roadway. The driver lost control of the vehicle which hit the rightside guardrail, then bounced back across the roadway overturning and hitting the central concrete median barrier between the two directions of travel.

OHIO PIKE

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