PA Turnpike News

[Crown Victoria]

If woman can survive, they may find...the PTC still working on the ORT conversion! 

Great 60's songs aside, considering the Thruway's ticket system sections only...they converted the whole thing at once and removed all booths within a year, with a total length of highway and number of interchanges comparable to the PA Turnpike's ticket system. The only reason the PTC isn't doing that is, well, that's not how we do it in PA. We generally take longer than necessary to get less done!

The conversion of tolling to height/axle-based ORT versus weight-based tickets, construction of gantries, and removal of old plazas costs a lot of money. PTC also has a ginormous debt load and a number of other expensive projects underway. It would appear PTC is trying to spread out costs over multiple years versus halting other projects or issuing even more debt to do things on an expedited schedule.

Of course that is all true. That comment was more in jest than anything else, but also to show that it could have been done more quickly. It is also true that highway projects in PA (the I-95 bridge notwithstanding, as that was a different situation) generally take quite a while to progress from initial planning to completion, for various reasons. For example, the Allegheny Tunnel project has been in planning for something like 20 years now, and is still probably 10 years out from completion.  Also, US 222 between Reading and Allentown has been planned for widening for at least 15 years now, but hasn't started construction yet (same for US 22 near Allentown).

I've seen and heard talk about PA doing something for transportation funding this year...it would be nice to see the Legislature address the PTC's debt load along with that. Not counting on it though.

[vdeane]

The conversion of tolling to height/axle-based ORT versus weight-based tickets, construction of gantries, and removal of old plazas costs a lot of money.

So how are they handling it with the hybrid system?  If the remains of the ticket system use weight and the gantries use height/axle, how do they assess tolls for trips that cross between the two?  The gantries wouldn't be able to assess weight and the toll barriers wouldn't be able to assess height/axle.

[Bitmapped]

The conversion of tolling to height/axle-based ORT versus weight-based tickets, construction of gantries, and removal of old plazas costs a lot of money.

So how are they handling it with the hybrid system?  If the remains of the ticket system use weight and the gantries use height/axle, how do they assess tolls for trips that cross between the two?  The gantries wouldn't be able to assess weight and the toll barriers wouldn't be able to assess height/axle.

The entire system converted to height/axles. Apparently the existing plazas were given the equipment to do this.

[Flyer78]

Took my first trip since the conversion, so just some observations.

Each gantry is referred to as a toll point, either as a sign on the gantry (in addition to the milepost location) or on an advance sign. This indicates a toll point is ahead, E-Z Pass or Billed by Mail - no use of the PA Toll by Plate logo.

Some definitely seemed brighter than others, but perhaps surroundings had something to do with that (wide-open areas, versus more limited clear space.)

Each location is a separate transaction posting.

Seemed like the Mid-County and Lake Harmony gantries were still reading tags (observed the strobe) - wonder if they are doing any (further?) testing of reads on the upstream gantry/Toll Point.

Finally, Pocono interchange was signed as closing overnight later this week (I think Thursday night into Friday), but I don't see anything on the Turnpike's website or Twitter/X feed.

[vdeane]

Each location is a separate transaction posting.

Ugh. Why can't anyone other than Massachusetts put them all together into a single posting so that reading E-ZPass statements isn't like assembling a jigsaw puzzle?  I would go so far as to say that it should be required under federal law.

[MASTERNC]

Took my first trip since the conversion, so just some observations.

Each gantry is referred to as a toll point, either as a sign on the gantry (in addition to the milepost location) or on an advance sign. This indicates a toll point is ahead, E-Z Pass or Billed by Mail - no use of the PA Toll by Plate logo.

Some definitely seemed brighter than others, but perhaps surroundings had something to do with that (wide-open areas, versus more limited clear space.)

Each location is a separate transaction posting.

Seemed like the Mid-County and Lake Harmony gantries were still reading tags (observed the strobe) - wonder if they are doing any (further?) testing of reads on the upstream gantry/Toll Point.

Finally, Pocono interchange was signed as closing overnight later this week (I think Thursday night into Friday), but I don't see anything on the Turnpike's website or Twitter/X feed.

The tolls also seem to take longer to post, and not all of them post the same day (even from the same trip).

[MASTERNC]

I pointed this out to the PTC last year when I noticed the toll for going 3 exits in the Philly area would increase nearly 20% with ORT.  Their press releases touted lower tolls or increases less than $1 but failed to note that some of the increases would be significant on a percent basis.  Glad this is coming more to light.

https://www.abc27.com/news/traffic/changes-coming-to-ezpass-on-the-pennsylvania-turnpike/

[jeffandnicole]

I pointed this out to the PTC last year when I noticed the toll for going 3 exits in the Philly area would increase nearly 20% with ORT.  Their press releases touted lower tolls or increases less than $1 but failed to note that some of the increases would be significant on a percent basis.  Glad this is coming more to light.

https://www.abc27.com/news/traffic/changes-coming-to-ezpass-on-the-pennsylvania-turnpike/

"This individual trip is one of the ones that will see a greater increase than others as we work to ensure equity across the entire turnpike system."

Just a bit of a contradiction in that single sentence.  It's equity in the per mile basis, but not when there's short distances between exits.

But it also highlights how news stations are less and less interested in digging into issues that affect their actual viewers.  They'll spend 15 minutes talking about weather that affects you (and still get it wrong because it was a 'tricky storm to forecast', but then just take press releases that are designed to minimize the downsides and read them almost verbatim.  Bonus points for when they use video or a photo of a toll booth from another state.

[Bitmapped]

I pointed this out to the PTC last year when I noticed the toll for going 3 exits in the Philly area would increase nearly 20% with ORT.  Their press releases touted lower tolls or increases less than $1 but failed to note that some of the increases would be significant on a percent basis.  Glad this is coming more to light.

https://www.abc27.com/news/traffic/changes-coming-to-ezpass-on-the-pennsylvania-turnpike/

"This individual trip is one of the ones that will see a greater increase than others as we work to ensure equity across the entire turnpike system."

Just a bit of a contradiction in that single sentence.  It's equity in the per mile basis, but not when there's short distances between exits.

PTC's tolling structure does provide some level of equity in maintenance costs when you figure that segments are directly tied to interchanges, which cost extra to build and maintain on top of mainline mileage. I don't know if $1.09 is the right fee to charge per segment, but having something that accounts for higher expenses in areas with denser interchanges areas beyond straight usage does make sense.