The ritual of handing cash to a toll collector on the Garden State Parkway is headed for the history books, but paying cash might still be an option on the New Jersey Turnpike.
The New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which runs both highways, followed the lead of the Atlantic City Expressway, after the Turnpike board voted unanimously Tuesday to award a $914 million contract to bring all-electronic, cashless toll collection to the toll roads.
The board of commissioners awarded a contract to TransCore, LP of Nashville to design install, maintain and run an all-electronic toll collection system for eight years.
The authority followed the lead of the South Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, which approved a similar $159 million contract with TransCore to design and build an all-electronic toll collection system for the Atlantic City Expressway. That system is expected to be in service by Memorial Day 2025, officials said.
Parkway drivers will likely see the transition first. Turnpike drivers who use cash may still be able to do for the foreseeable future, depending on which option the authority chooses.
“The Parkway will be first of the two NJTA roads to go to all-electronic tolling. There is no firm roll out date. It’s probably three or four years away,” said Tom Feeney, an authority spokesperson.
Two options are being considered for the Turnpike, to install all new electronic toll collection equipment and infrastructure or a retrofit of existing toll plazas.
“Either toll booths will come down and gantries will be installed to hold the new equipment in an AET system,” Feeney said. “Or the booths will stay up and TransCore will provide technology to run a system that provides both for E-ZPass and cash transactions.”
The proposal TransCore submitted provides for both options on the Turnpike, he said.
The contract approved is for the technology – cameras, readers, servers, antennae, scanners, sensors and other equipment, Feeney said. “There is a lot of planning, design, and construction to be done at the toll plazas before the equipment can be installed,” he said.
Eliminating cash will not affect the majority of toll road drivers. In August, 91.3% of Turnpike drivers and 89.5% on the Parkway used E-ZPass, according to authority statistics. The Parkway already has one cashless all electronic toll plaza on the southbound lanes at Exit 125 in Sayreville.
“The AET system would be like what is being planned for the Parkway – the toll booths would be replaced with gantries,” Feeney said.
E-ZPass customers would continue to drive as they do now through toll plazas with high speed E-ZPass tag readers and cameras on overhead gantries. Those without E-ZPass will have their license plate photographed and a bill for the toll sent to the registered owner of the vehicle.
Turnpike officials have been concerned about out of state drivers who could ignore the bills. One tool is an agreement between state motor vehicle agencies allowing another state to threaten to suspend the driver’s license or registration for repeat toll violators.
“Reciprocity remains a high priority. There are no agreements in place yet,” Feeney said.
Implementing all-electronic, cashless toll collection was one of the projects included in the A.C. Expressway’s and New Jersey Turnpike Authority’s capital plans that were funded by a toll increase on the three toll highways that took effect on Sept. 13, 2020. The toll collection project is funded through the SJTA’s $500 million capital plan.
The two toll road authorities used a joint procurement process where the SJTA sought proposals in January from companies to provide a turnkey, all-electronic toll collection system that could be expanded to all public toll authorities in the state.
Three companies responded and a joint committee of officials from the two authorities recommended TransCore over Jersey Tolling Partners, a joint venture between Parsons Transportation Group and Neology, Inc.
The turnpike authority also negotiated a reduced $1.243 billion “best and final offer,” which represented a reduction from the original $1.37 billion price. The $914 million contract price depends on which option the turnpike authority selects after the system is designed for the turnpike.
The turnpike authority’s $24 billion capital plan called for spending $400 million to design and install an all-electronic toll collection on the Turnpike and $500 million for the Parkway. It provides 60 months for planning and design, and 36 months for construction on both toll roads, the plan said.
Replacing toll collectors with electronic cashless tolls has been talked about for more than a decade and at times has been a political issue.
In 2011, Turnpike and Parkway toll collector unions made some contract concessions and the turnpike authority dropped threats to privatize toll collection, but going cashless was raised. At that time, officials predicted that all-electronic toll collection was two years away. Collectors signed a new contract in December 2020, which some considered their last agreement, covering 550 people.
As of early 2022, there were 145 toll collector positions on the Parkway and 203 on the Turnpike, Feeney said.
One of the unions that represents toll collectors and other employees is preparing for that eventuality, said Barry Kushnir, chairman of Local 94.
“We already negotiated a committee for for the future, where our unions will sit down and discuss with the authority how we’ll address technology moving forward. for the authorities benefit and the employees benefit,” he said. “There’s a lot of room to work with in that space.”
Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust.
Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com.
If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
