It’s time to say goodbye to toll booths along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, replacing them with gantries, elevated structures equipped with sensors that electronically charge vehicles a toll.
The plan, approved by the Pennsylvania Toll Road Commission last week, would build cashless gantries that would allow drivers to maintain their speed while paying tolls.
Construction of the new gantries will begin on the Northeast Extension in January 2025 as part of the “Open Road Tolling” initiative, according to toll road spokeswoman Marissa Orbanek. Construction of gantries is scheduled to begin in western Pennsylvania in 2027.
Orbanek said he expects demolition of the toll booths to begin in 2026, with the entire project to be completed in late 2028. Drivers will continue to travel to work as they normally do until demolition begins. A timeline for the demolition has not yet been determined.
Some gantries are already in operation, including those on the Southern Beltway near Pittsburgh and the Delaware River Bridge connecting Bristol Township to Burlington, New Jersey.
Once completed, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission expects to save $25 million annually in maintenance and construction costs.
What is Open Road Tolling?
Open Road Tolling is a cashless toll collection system that works in two ways: by scanning an E-ZPass transponder at a gantry, or by capturing the driver’s license plate and sending an invoice through the mail.
In 2020, the Turnpike Commission decided to go completely cashless, laying off about 500 employees. Currently, there are no employees working at the toll booths, so no jobs have been affected.
The gantries are intended to ease congestion on the toll roads and reduce accidents caused by vehicles slowing down before entering the toll booths.
“Open Road Tolling is the future of tolling in our country and it’s being implemented across the country,” Orbanek said. “We’ve been working on this for 15 years and we’re really excited to get started in January.”