PA Turnpike News

[Bitmapped]

^
With Lawrence's inclusion on the county list, I presume this means that the Gateway toll plaza will be demolished and replaced with a gantry (despite traffic already proceeding highway-speed thru what was originally the express E-ZPass lanes at the plaza) - I wonder whether the new gantry will remain one-way eastbound or become two-way? Which would be slightly amusing since the Ohio Turnpike's Eastgate toll plaza is about to become westbound-only with the launch of their new tolling system.

The bid items show new "tolling facilities" at mileposts 5.4 (halfway between state line and New Castle exit), 46.7 (mile west of Allegheny Valley), 53.9 (3 miles west of Pittsburgh), 63.6 (mile east of proposed PA 130 exit), and 74.7 (just west of New Stanton). So, it looks like they're replacing Gateway entirely and leaving the existing free section free. They'll need to add a new in-fill gantry west of PA 130 when they get around to building that interchange.

It's not clear if the western end will be getting two-way tolling or not. I'd hoped this project would reinstate two-way AET the full length west of Cranberry. People who are just going between the state line and I-376, like I do a couple times a year, get gouged under the current system.

[vdeane]

It's not clear if the western end will be getting two-way tolling or not. I'd hoped this project would reinstate two-way AET the full length west of Cranberry. People who are just going between the state line and I-376, like I do a couple times a year, get gouged under the current system.

Actually, I would think reinstating two-way tolling would lead to gouging, thanks to the changes on the Ohio side.  With Eastgate going one-way, it and Gateway will form a nice pair, if the PTC leaves things as they are.

[roadman65]

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0BqW2h5ULdCuAUymbqUsqB2GFSfeAAmwJYSsxuc23t86EfAxG74b2BNPvuxsaiZF7l&id=100092612415258
Interesting photo. An original pony plate overpass at one of the interchanges, plus the original grass median.

Edit.  That overpass is still there as a recent GSV caption shows it. That's Fort Littleton looking east.

I did notice the PTC added another Jersey barrier off to the side near Fort Littleton. https://maps.app.goo.gl/98Me6bSSqL9KLMrCA

[74/171FAN]

PennDOT - District 6 News: PA Turnpike Bridge Construction Scheduled on N. Gulph Road in Upper Merion Township

[MASTERNC]

The project for ORT gantries between New Stanton and Fort Littleton is now up for bid online.  The interesting locations are the gantries around MP 100 on the western end of the Laurel Mountain summit between Donegal and Somerset (separate gantries for each direction) and the gantry at the top of the Rays Hill/Sideling Hill bypass around MP 168.

[ARMOURERERIC]

For the past few days, I've been on my annual stakeout for when the PTC posts their annual capital improvement plan.  Today, they posted a summary 2025 budget, but nothing in detail.  Will keep my eyes peeled.  I will say that the amounts for total reconstruction are not very impressive for the next few years.

[ixnay]

Like 74/171 pointed out on the main PA thread, this (about the completion of the all-AET conversion of the 'Pike), belongs on this thread, not that one, for surely obvious reasons.

https://triblive.com/news/pennsylvania/pa-turnpike-to-remove-all-toll-booths-overhead-gantries-planned/

Can somebody (or paturnpike.com) give a status report of what portions of the Turnpike System are currently cashless or not? 

[vdeane]

^ The entire Turnpike has been cashless since COVID.  They just use the existing booths.

[Rothman]

PA Turnpike finally coming out of the 20th Century.

[MASTERNC]

Hopefully there will be some insight on how the two systems will work during the transition when part of the Turnpike charges by segment and the other based on entry & exit points.  The whole system will change from weight-based pricing to axle-plus-height pricing, even the legacy system, next year.

There is also a note of a "fixed" charge plus segment charge for each gantry.  I'm curious as to whether that adds to an additional toll increase over the normal 4.5-5% annual change.

I imagine the toll increase voted on soon will have more details.

[vdeane]

There is also a note of a "fixed" charge plus segment charge for each gantry.  I'm curious as to whether that adds to an additional toll increase over the normal 4.5-5% annual change.

Looks like they're taking a page from ON 407 ETR.  I guess it's fitting, given that they're the other toll road that's infamous for being really expensive.

[Mr_Northside]

PA Turnpike finally coming out of the 20th Century.

I'm wondering what that makes the Ohio Turnpike, who just a few weeks ago opened their new "modern" mainline plazas consisting of inner ORT lanes, and outer traditional plaza lanes - pretty much the same design as the PTC's Warrendale Plaza (open for about 21 years now), replaced with the nearby ORT overhead gantry (though not sure if they switched operation yet), that will get demolished for being antiquated.

That said, on the other side of PA, I bet the PTC hates how the timing occurred that they built the new plaza just west of the PA-TPK/I-95 interchange as an early-action item in that overall project.  If they could have held off just 6-7 more years, they could have built a simple all ORT gantry, like they're doing now elsewhere, instead of that ORT-inside/traditional lanes outside plaza.

Hopefully there will be some insight on how the two systems will work during the transition when part of the Turnpike charges by segment and the other based on entry & exit points.  The whole system will change from weight-based pricing to axle-plus-height pricing, even the legacy system, next year.

For tolls in general, I would guess that they can just "program" the last gantry heading west to act as the new eastern endpoint of the traditional ticket system until all the mainline gantries are done/working west of there, then just change the programming to have it switch to just act as a single barrier toll.  Though I can't vouch for the weight-based pricing to axle-plus-height pricing aspect.

[vdeane]

That said, on the other side of PA, I bet the PTC hates how the timing occurred that they built the new plaza just west of the PA-TPK/I-95 interchange as an early-action item in that overall project.  If they could have held off just 6-7 more years, they could have built a simple all ORT gantry, like they're doing now elsewhere, instead of that ORT-inside/traditional lanes outside plaza.

Unless you're suggesting that they should have delayed the entire project until after COVID, that wouldn't have worked unless toll booths were installed on the I-95 ramps, which would have the exact same issue except worse.

[epzik8]

That said, on the other side of PA, I bet the PTC hates how the timing occurred that they built the new plaza just west of the PA-TPK/I-95 interchange as an early-action item in that overall project.  If they could have held off just 6-7 more years, they could have built a simple all ORT gantry, like they're doing now elsewhere, instead of that ORT-inside/traditional lanes outside plaza.

Ooh yeah, massive waste of money and poor foresight on their part.

[jeffandnicole]

That said, on the other side of PA, I bet the PTC hates how the timing occurred that they built the new plaza just west of the PA-TPK/I-95 interchange as an early-action item in that overall project.  If they could have held off just 6-7 more years, they could have built a simple all ORT gantry, like they're doing now elsewhere, instead of that ORT-inside/traditional lanes outside plaza.

Ooh yeah, massive waste of money and poor foresight on their part.

Not entirely, at least in regards to foresight.  As mentioned, the only way to have avoided this was to delay the 95 ramps even further into the future, speed up ETC to before the new 95 ramps opened (which would delay a number of other projects as funding would need to be shifted) or go old-school and keep the mainline plaza just west of the PA-NJ Turnpike connector bridge, and put toll plazas in on the new ramps.

The Covid pandemic wasn't predicted.  Can't blame poor foresight on that.  And it moved up the timing of when the Turnpike went all-electronic. 

[epzik8]

That said, on the other side of PA, I bet the PTC hates how the timing occurred that they built the new plaza just west of the PA-TPK/I-95 interchange as an early-action item in that overall project.  If they could have held off just 6-7 more years, they could have built a simple all ORT gantry, like they're doing now elsewhere, instead of that ORT-inside/traditional lanes outside plaza.

Ooh yeah, massive waste of money and poor foresight on their part.

Not entirely, at least in regards to foresight.  As mentioned, the only way to have avoided this was to delay the 95 ramps even further into the future, speed up ETC to before the new 95 ramps opened (which would delay a number of other projects as funding would need to be shifted) or go old-school and keep the mainline plaza just west of the PA-NJ Turnpike connector bridge, and put toll plazas in on the new ramps.

The Covid pandemic wasn't predicted.  Can't blame poor foresight on that.  And it moved up the timing of when the Turnpike went all-electronic. 

That's true, I somehow forgot about how Covid sped up the conversion to all-electronic to an extent.

[jeffandnicole]

That said, on the other side of PA, I bet the PTC hates how the timing occurred that they built the new plaza just west of the PA-TPK/I-95 interchange as an early-action item in that overall project.  If they could have held off just 6-7 more years, they could have built a simple all ORT gantry, like they're doing now elsewhere, instead of that ORT-inside/traditional lanes outside plaza.

Ooh yeah, massive waste of money and poor foresight on their part.

Not entirely, at least in regards to foresight.  As mentioned, the only way to have avoided this was to delay the 95 ramps even further into the future, speed up ETC to before the new 95 ramps opened (which would delay a number of other projects as funding would need to be shifted) or go old-school and keep the mainline plaza just west of the PA-NJ Turnpike connector bridge, and put toll plazas in on the new ramps.

The Covid pandemic wasn't predicted.  Can't blame poor foresight on that.  And it moved up the timing of when the Turnpike went all-electronic. 

That's true, I somehow forgot about how Covid sped up the conversion to all-electronic to an extent.

I will say one of the original plans of the 95/Tpk interchange was to incorporate standard toll plazas into the interchange.  Once they decided to nix that and make a single open road tolling point between the bridge and the interchange, they revamped the interchange to include the high speed ramps they built.

[MASTERNC]

There is also a note of a "fixed" charge plus segment charge for each gantry.  I'm curious as to whether that adds to an additional toll increase over the normal 4.5-5% annual change.

I imagine the toll increase voted on soon will have more details.

Found a nugget in the "Act 44 Plan" the Commission files yearly about its obligations.  While it is light on specifics, the answer to my own question seems to be here:

https://files.paturnpike.com/production/docs/default-source/resources/investor-relations/act-44/act-44-financial-plan.pdf?sfvrsn=fb5d2fc5_4

It is the intent of the Commission that the new toll schedule in January 2025 will be approximately the equivalent to a 5% toll increase when compared to a similar trip/transaction in the prior year. While a general 5% toll increase is assumed for the entire System, the combination of changes to the tolling schedule (ORT) on a portion of the System and changes to the vehicle classification system along the entire Turnpike may result in fluctuations of individual toll increases across varied transactions. The Commission anticipates that most trips/transactions in 2025 will see either a slight decrease in the effective toll or no change in the effective toll from the conversion to ORT or the change to the vehicle classification system.

[MASTERNC]

The annual 5% toll increase is on the agenda for the next Commission meeting next Tuesday. However, there is a big positive change - tolls will no longer be rounded up to the next dime (which effectively made the increase larger). They will now be rounded to the next penny, which means there will now be odd amounts (like in New York).

[jmacswimmer]

IIRC the PTC previously rounded E-ZPass tolls up to the nearest penny & cash tolls up to the nearest nickel as recently as 2018 - I kind of assumed the change to round both to the next dime was to get a little more out of each increase, so interesting to see them planning to revert back to the nearest penny now.

[MASTERNC]

IIRC the PTC previously rounded E-ZPass tolls up to the nearest penny & cash tolls up to the nearest nickel as recently as 2018 - I kind of assumed the change to round both to the next dime was to get a little more out of each increase, so interesting to see them planning to revert back to the nearest penny now.

I thought at one point they were rounding up to the next quarter

[jmacswimmer]

IIRC the PTC previously rounded E-ZPass tolls up to the nearest penny & cash tolls up to the nearest nickel as recently as 2018 - I kind of assumed the change to round both to the next dime was to get a little more out of each increase, so interesting to see them planning to revert back to the nearest penny now.

I thought at one point they were rounding up to the next quarter

I vaguely remember that too from roadtrips as a kid, maybe that was their old formula prior to the annual act 44/89 toll increases? The Ohio Turnpike appears to still round to the nearest quarter as well...but for tolls being paid electronically (or billed via license plate), there really isn't a need to keep the toll amount to a nicely-rounded number anymore.

[Bitmapped]

IIRC the PTC previously rounded E-ZPass tolls up to the nearest penny & cash tolls up to the nearest nickel as recently as 2018 - I kind of assumed the change to round both to the next dime was to get a little more out of each increase, so interesting to see them planning to revert back to the nearest penny now.

This will be a nice change. I regularly use the southernmost part of the Mon-Fayette Expressway. Rounding to the nearest dime has pushed the tolls up 10 cents every year. It's now $1.90 for 6 tolled miles (plus 2 more non-tolled miles maintained by PTC).

[ARMOURERERIC]

Do you all think/anyone know if PTC will launch any new major construction projects in 2025?  Right now, I'm not seeing any evidence of it happening.

[Crown Victoria]

Do you all think/anyone know if PTC will launch any new major construction projects in 2025?  Right now, I'm not seeing any evidence of it happening.

Perhaps this will answer your question...the PTC finally posted the FY2025 Capital Plan in full:

https://files.paturnpike.com/production/docs/default-source/resources/investor-relations/capital-plan/2025-capital-plan.pdf?sfvrsn=6c87a4dc_6

From what I can tell, the only possibility for a major project to start sometime next year is the MP 320-324 Reconstruction. There's a lot of money being spent on the ORT conversion, and it seems like there's a general reduction in capital spending for the next few years.

However, several new projects are beginning design, including MP 26-28, MP 38-40 (reconstructed already, but still 4 lanes), MP 155-161, and the Breezewood Interchange MP 160-163 (?!)