New York State Thruway

[seicer]

Could be worse. RiverLink in Louisville KY keeps delaying transactions, even with a new provider. Bills keep being paused. People receiving erroneous bills or no bills at all. Registration holds because of a lack of payment (because of errors like that). They have gone through three toll operators in less than 10 years. Now there are lawsuits being filed because of this.

I've not had an issue with NYSTA tags but I don't travel on it that often anymore. Customer service was atrocious and it seemed like they had outsourced it. I similarly didn't have an issue with the WVTPA tags but customer service was a bit better - and local.

[Alps]

My travel on the Thruway is generally limited to Exits 15 to and from 16.  The Harriman toll is usually posted the next day.

As my toll is not excessive I am undecided regarding getting a Thruway E-ZPass.  However, since both Slothburg and Ramapo will be closed for quite awhile it is a moot question as there is no way i could pick one up currently.

False, I got mine in Spring Valley or Nanuet along 59. Look up where to find Thruway ones.

[cu2010]

My tolls finally hit...six weeks later. When there wasn't enough money in my account to cover them.

This is a problem. How was the AET conversion so horribly botched?

...oh, right, King Andy.

[kalvado]

My tolls finally hit...six weeks later. When there wasn't enough money in my account to cover them.

This is a problem. How was the AET conversion so horribly botched?

...oh, right, King Andy.

Give 5he credit where it belongs. General degradation of engineering skills.
Glitches in early stages of such project deployment are to be expected and can be blamed on poor organization. 2 years later that is not an excuse any more.
The only fault of Cuomo is pushing for the new bridge which kills NYSTA finances. But that bridge seems to be the least of possible evils. There are way too many bridges in trouble with massive consequences all over the place

[Rothman]

My tolls finally hit...six weeks later. When there wasn't enough money in my account to cover them.

This is a problem. How was the AET conversion so horribly botched?

...oh, right, King Andy.

Give 5he credit where it belongs. General degradation of engineering skills.
Glitches in early stages of such project deployment are to be expected and can be blamed on poor organization. 2 years later that is not an excuse any more.
The only fault of Cuomo is pushing for the new bridge which kills NYSTA finances. But that bridge seems to be the least of possible evils. There are way too many bridges in trouble with massive consequences all over the place

The new bridge had to be built, given the state of the old one.

[lstone19]

My tolls finally hit...six weeks later. When there wasn't enough money in my account to cover them.

So fox six weeks you knew these toll charges were coming yet you didn't make sure the account was funded? How is that on them?
Why don't you have the account on auto-replenish?

[kalvado]

My tolls finally hit...six weeks later. When there wasn't enough money in my account to cover them.

This is a problem. How was the AET conversion so horribly botched?

...oh, right, King Andy.

Give 5he credit where it belongs. General degradation of engineering skills.
Glitches in early stages of such project deployment are to be expected and can be blamed on poor organization. 2 years later that is not an excuse any more.
The only fault of Cuomo is pushing for the new bridge which kills NYSTA finances. But that bridge seems to be the least of possible evils. There are way too many bridges in trouble with massive consequences all over the place

The new bridge had to be built, given the state of the old one.

That's what I actually thought. Are you privileged to any details beyond general "built during steel shortages, wood is rotting" general things?

[cu2010]

My tolls finally hit...six weeks later. When there wasn't enough money in my account to cover them.

So fox six weeks you knew these toll charges were coming yet you didn't make sure the account was funded? How is that on them?
Why don't you have the account on auto-replenish?

It is on auto-replenish. My point was more it shouldn't be taking six weeks...especially when in the past it's always been a day or two.

SM-S908U

[Rothman]

My tolls finally hit...six weeks later. When there wasn't enough money in my account to cover them.

This is a problem. How was the AET conversion so horribly botched?

...oh, right, King Andy.

Give 5he credit where it belongs. General degradation of engineering skills.
Glitches in early stages of such project deployment are to be expected and can be blamed on poor organization. 2 years later that is not an excuse any more.
The only fault of Cuomo is pushing for the new bridge which kills NYSTA finances. But that bridge seems to be the least of possible evils. There are way too many bridges in trouble with massive consequences all over the place

The new bridge had to be built, given the state of the old one.

That's what I actually thought. Are you privileged to any details beyond general "built during steel shortages, wood is rotting" general things?

"Wood is rotting" is a new one .  Sure, the steel shortages played a role, as did the fact that the political jurisdictions down there placed the bridge on one of the widest parts of the Hudson, and that the bridge did not set totally on bedrock and required 24/7 pumps to stabilize some of its piers...But, in the end, there's a good parallel here from the old Tappan Zee Bridge and the I-81 Viaduct:  After decades of patching the deck, the bridge became notorious for punch-throughs -- the concrete was deteriorating to the point where you could see the water below through the holes when they occurred.  The horrible condition of the deck, combined with the not-steel structure made the total replacement the desired alternative, rather than a deck replacement.

To be frank, at least in my little exposure to the project, the fact it progressed as quickly as it did was pretty remarkable (went faster than even some of the locally-administered projects I've been more involved with), even with all the discussions regarding how to accommodate pedestrians and transit that came to bear and whatnot.

[kalvado]

My tolls finally hit...six weeks later. When there wasn't enough money in my account to cover them.

This is a problem. How was the AET conversion so horribly botched?

...oh, right, King Andy.

Give 5he credit where it belongs. General degradation of engineering skills.
Glitches in early stages of such project deployment are to be expected and can be blamed on poor organization. 2 years later that is not an excuse any more.
The only fault of Cuomo is pushing for the new bridge which kills NYSTA finances. But that bridge seems to be the least of possible evils. There are way too many bridges in trouble with massive consequences all over the place

The new bridge had to be built, given the state of the old one.

That's what I actually thought. Are you privileged to any details beyond general "built during steel shortages, wood is rotting" general things?

"Wood is rotting" is a new one .  Sure, the steel shortages played a role, as did the fact that the political jurisdictions down there placed the bridge on one of the widest parts of the Hudson, and that the bridge did not set totally on bedrock and required 24/7 pumps to stabilize some of its piers...But, in the end, there's a good parallel here from the old Tappan Zee Bridge and the I-81 Viaduct:  After decades of patching the deck, the bridge became notorious for punch-throughs -- the concrete was deteriorating to the point where you could see the water below through the holes when they occurred.  The horrible condition of the deck, combined with the not-steel structure made the total replacement the desired alternative, rather than a deck replacement.

To be frank, at least in my little exposure to the project, the fact it progressed as quickly as it did was pretty remarkable (went faster than even some of the locally-administered projects I've been more involved with), even with all the discussions regarding how to accommodate pedestrians and transit that came to bear and whatnot.

There are certainly deck replacement projects here and there, if that was the major problem full replacement seems like an overkill. I had an impression viaduct also has problems with the core structure...
ANyway, I believe there are two bad things associated with the bridge. First one is the naming situation; the second is toll freeze on top of massive spending for the bridge. Massive discussion on tolling and (up/down)state subsidizes (down/up)state is implied but not welcome. 

[Rothman]

My tolls finally hit...six weeks later. When there wasn't enough money in my account to cover them.

This is a problem. How was the AET conversion so horribly botched?

...oh, right, King Andy.

Give 5he credit where it belongs. General degradation of engineering skills.
Glitches in early stages of such project deployment are to be expected and can be blamed on poor organization. 2 years later that is not an excuse any more.
The only fault of Cuomo is pushing for the new bridge which kills NYSTA finances. But that bridge seems to be the least of possible evils. There are way too many bridges in trouble with massive consequences all over the place

The new bridge had to be built, given the state of the old one.

That's what I actually thought. Are you privileged to any details beyond general "built during steel shortages, wood is rotting" general things?

"Wood is rotting" is a new one .  Sure, the steel shortages played a role, as did the fact that the political jurisdictions down there placed the bridge on one of the widest parts of the Hudson, and that the bridge did not set totally on bedrock and required 24/7 pumps to stabilize some of its piers...But, in the end, there's a good parallel here from the old Tappan Zee Bridge and the I-81 Viaduct:  After decades of patching the deck, the bridge became notorious for punch-throughs -- the concrete was deteriorating to the point where you could see the water below through the holes when they occurred.  The horrible condition of the deck, combined with the not-steel structure made the total replacement the desired alternative, rather than a deck replacement.

To be frank, at least in my little exposure to the project, the fact it progressed as quickly as it did was pretty remarkable (went faster than even some of the locally-administered projects I've been more involved with), even with all the discussions regarding how to accommodate pedestrians and transit that came to bear and whatnot.

There are certainly deck replacement projects here and there, if that was the major problem full replacement seems like an overkill. I had an impression viaduct also has problems with the core structure...
ANyway, I believe there are two bad things associated with the bridge. First one is the naming situation; the second is toll freeze on top of massive spending for the bridge. Massive discussion on tolling and (up/down)state subsidizes (down/up)state is implied but not welcome. 

I trust the engineers that I work with and those that worked directly on the project than any armchair observer.

If the naming of the bridge and toll freeze are the worst things associated with the bridge, then it did pretty well.

[kalvado]

My tolls finally hit...six weeks later. When there wasn't enough money in my account to cover them.

This is a problem. How was the AET conversion so horribly botched?

...oh, right, King Andy.

Give 5he credit where it belongs. General degradation of engineering skills.
Glitches in early stages of such project deployment are to be expected and can be blamed on poor organization. 2 years later that is not an excuse any more.
The only fault of Cuomo is pushing for the new bridge which kills NYSTA finances. But that bridge seems to be the least of possible evils. There are way too many bridges in trouble with massive consequences all over the place

The new bridge had to be built, given the state of the old one.

That's what I actually thought. Are you privileged to any details beyond general "built during steel shortages, wood is rotting" general things?

"Wood is rotting" is a new one .  Sure, the steel shortages played a role, as did the fact that the political jurisdictions down there placed the bridge on one of the widest parts of the Hudson, and that the bridge did not set totally on bedrock and required 24/7 pumps to stabilize some of its piers...But, in the end, there's a good parallel here from the old Tappan Zee Bridge and the I-81 Viaduct:  After decades of patching the deck, the bridge became notorious for punch-throughs -- the concrete was deteriorating to the point where you could see the water below through the holes when they occurred.  The horrible condition of the deck, combined with the not-steel structure made the total replacement the desired alternative, rather than a deck replacement.

To be frank, at least in my little exposure to the project, the fact it progressed as quickly as it did was pretty remarkable (went faster than even some of the locally-administered projects I've been more involved with), even with all the discussions regarding how to accommodate pedestrians and transit that came to bear and whatnot.

There are certainly deck replacement projects here and there, if that was the major problem full replacement seems like an overkill. I had an impression viaduct also has problems with the core structure...
ANyway, I believe there are two bad things associated with the bridge. First one is the naming situation; the second is toll freeze on top of massive spending for the bridge. Massive discussion on tolling and (up/down)state subsidizes (down/up)state is implied but not welcome. 

I trust the engineers that I work with and those that worked directly on the project than any armchair observer.

If the naming of the bridge and toll freeze are the worst things associated with the bridge, then it did pretty well.

As much as people dislike Cuomo, he certainly could make certain things happen on his watch.

[Alps]

My tolls finally hit...six weeks later. When there wasn't enough money in my account to cover them.

This is a problem. How was the AET conversion so horribly botched?

...oh, right, King Andy.

Give 5he credit where it belongs. General degradation of engineering skills.
Glitches in early stages of such project deployment are to be expected and can be blamed on poor organization. 2 years later that is not an excuse any more.
The only fault of Cuomo is pushing for the new bridge which kills NYSTA finances. But that bridge seems to be the least of possible evils. There are way too many bridges in trouble with massive consequences all over the place

The new bridge had to be built, given the state of the old one.

That's what I actually thought. Are you privileged to any details beyond general "built during steel shortages, wood is rotting" general things?

I am, which means I can't share any of it here (:

[lstone19]

My tolls finally hit...six weeks later. When there wasn't enough money in my account to cover them.

So fox six weeks you knew these toll charges were coming yet you didn't make sure the account was funded? How is that on them?
Why don't you have the account on auto-replenish?

It is on auto-replenish. My point was more it shouldn't be taking six weeks...especially when in the past it's always been a day or two.

SM-S908U

Then what was the point of the comment about there not being enough in the account? Going negative for the few hours between toll posting and auto-replenish posting is not a problem. For those of us on "pay per trip," that's how all tolls work (think of it as a daily auto-replenish in the amount it's negative).

I agree the six weeks is wrong but the few hours of negative balance is not one of the problems.

[cu2010]

I was referring to there not being enough in the bank account attached to it to cover it...damn overdraft fees. Yes I'm aware it's 100% my fault...still annoying!

[vdeane]

I feel like there should be a federal law that states that all tolls not billed within two weeks for transponder tolls and a month for bill by mail are forefit by the toll agency.  That would stop surprise bills from agencies that don't have their act together like the Thruway.  Or ones that hold licence plate information to bill people years later as they expand the number of states they have agreements with.

[Jim]

How is it so hard for the Thruway and so easy for everyone else?  On my business trip November 2-5 trip to South Carolina, for which I'd like to get the tolls posted so I can submit my travel for reimbursement in one shot, no sign of my Thruway tolls on my account but NJTP, GSP, DMB, Bay Bridge, and US 301 in Delaware all posted by the next day.  You'd think the agency that issued my tag would be faster.  Looks like NYT tolls from my trip in mid-October to NYC (which I was in no rush to see posted since it wasn't business) took 29 days to post.  That's one mighty slow computer system they've got there...

[Rothman]

My tolls finally hit...six weeks later. When there wasn't enough money in my account to cover them.

This is a problem. How was the AET conversion so horribly botched?

...oh, right, King Andy.

Give 5he credit where it belongs. General degradation of engineering skills.
Glitches in early stages of such project deployment are to be expected and can be blamed on poor organization. 2 years later that is not an excuse any more.
The only fault of Cuomo is pushing for the new bridge which kills NYSTA finances. But that bridge seems to be the least of possible evils. There are way too many bridges in trouble with massive consequences all over the place

The new bridge had to be built, given the state of the old one.

That's what I actually thought. Are you privileged to any details beyond general "built during steel shortages, wood is rotting" general things?

I am, which means I can't share any of it here (:

Pfft.  Chicken.

[kalvado]

How is it so hard for the Thruway and so easy for everyone else?  On my business trip November 2-5 trip to South Carolina, for which I'd like to get the tolls posted so I can submit my travel for reimbursement in one shot, no sign of my Thruway tolls on my account but NJTP, GSP, DMB, Bay Bridge, and US 301 in Delaware all posted by the next day.  You'd think the agency that issued my tag would be faster.  Looks like NYT tolls from my trip in mid-October to NYC (which I was in no rush to see posted since it wasn't business) took 29 days to post.  That's one mighty slow computer system they've got there...

Computer... I wouldn't be surprised if there is some manual review process that slows things down. Just to keep toll-takers employed. 

[Jim]

The frame is going up for the new building at the Guilderland Service Area, and it sure does look like another tiny one.  It's not one I visit much so I don't know how busy it typically gets.

[storm2k]

I've not had an issue with NYSTA tags but I don't travel on it that often anymore. Customer service was atrocious and it seemed like they had outsourced it. I similarly didn't have an issue with the WVTPA tags but customer service was a bit better - and local.

Pretty par for the course, unfortunately. The NJ Service Center is an absolute pain to deal with in most any regard, and they're not outsourced the last time I checked, and they are in Newark.

[kalvado]

How is it so hard for the Thruway and so easy for everyone else?  On my business trip November 2-5 trip to South Carolina, for which I'd like to get the tolls posted so I can submit my travel for reimbursement in one shot, no sign of my Thruway tolls on my account but NJTP, GSP, DMB, Bay Bridge, and US 301 in Delaware all posted by the next day.  You'd think the agency that issued my tag would be faster.  Looks like NYT tolls from my trip in mid-October to NYC (which I was in no rush to see posted since it wasn't business) took 29 days to post.  That's one mighty slow computer system they've got there...

Computer... I wouldn't be surprised if there is some manual review process that slows things down. Just to keep toll-takers employed.

Just got an ezpass monthly statement with "we experienced a delay" message and a longest processing time of 39 days.
Last trip was posted next day, so maybe they worked out the issue.

[vdeane]

I was over at the Schuyler service area today (the "level 1" service area).  It's interesting.  The bathrooms are the same size as the base "level 2" service areas (the small ones), but aren't split, so all six stalls are in the same place.  There's also plenty of seating (relative to its size), which is again interesting because the convenience store has no true food items (not even subs/pizza/hot dogs like they do at the other service areas) and Dunkin doesn't have much in the way of food either.  Basically, it's a good place for a bathroom break, since the lack of food options keeps it lightly patronized while the bathrooms are the same size as at the next size up service area (and much better laid out).

[webny99]

I was over at the Schuyler service area today (the "level 1" service area).  It's interesting.  The bathrooms are the same size as the base "level 2" service areas (the small ones), but aren't split, so all six stalls are in the same place.  There's also plenty of seating (relative to its size), which is again interesting because the convenience store has no true food items (not even subs/pizza/hot dogs like they do at the other service areas) and Dunkin doesn't have much in the way of food either.  Basically, it's a good place for a bathroom break, since the lack of food options keeps it lightly patronized while the bathrooms are the same size as at the next size up service area (and much better laid out).

Interesting. I'm still really curious about the data that was used to determine which areas got which level service area (guide here for reference). Schuyler is one that makes sense, since Iroquois is only 17 miles away (quite close by Thruway standards) and some of the Mohawk Valley ones in general I'd expect to be more lightly used.

But I can't figure out any rhyme or reason to the levels between Rochester and Utica, especially WB. Chittenango, the only WB area between Utica and Syracuse, is only a level 2, and therefore Warners is the only service area above a level 2 between Rochester and Utica. You'd think anyone coming to/from the Syracuse area would be more likely to stop at Junius Ponds or Seneca, yet those are both only level 2. EB makes a little more sense with Clifton Springs being level 3 and Oneida being level 2A, but then after Oneida there's nothing above a level 2 until Albany; it seems like either Mohawk or Guilderland (or maybe both) should be level 2A.

I've been perusing the Google reviews on the areas that have reopened, and the difference in level 2 reviews vs. level 2A/2B/3 reviews is vast. The small ones are really not well liked, with reviews taking a big downturn after the reopenings, while the larger ones have been mixed but more positive overall. Junius Ponds and Chittenango in particular seem to be despised - but there again, Warners is the only 2A between Utica and Rochester and it's currently closed, so with those two being as small as they are, there's going to be some overcrowding issues until Warners reopens.

[vdeane]

^ And on a more meta level, the whole level scheme is kinda hokey.  I think I get where they're going with it (with the A and B referring to additional amenities with the number being the base), but 2A and 2B have more common with everything level 3 than with the base level 2 (hence why I use "level 3" to refer to everything above the base level 2).  And if we're getting technical, maybe Chittenango should actually be "level 1A" given that CFA is closed on Sundays, leaving it with just Starbucks one day out of every week.

As for the distribution, there seems to be a thought of "bigger service areas leaving a metro area, smaller ones further into the journey" for whatever reason.  It's not even a recent thought, given that Ardsley exists and has no SB counterpart.  This is visible even in NYSDOT rest areas; see Clifton Park (no SB counterpart) and the Adirondack Welcome Center (bigger and more modern than Glens Falls SB).

Just checked the project page, and they've updated the reopening dates for all of them.  Looks like they hit a MASSIVE delay at some point, as the renovations went from opening early next year to the end of next year, and Angola was pushed back to 2025 (many of the others slipped by a quarter or two as well).  So much for having the bulk of the system back online for the summer travel season next year.