The Pennsylvania Turnpike could be introducing its first all-electronic tolling system at a tollbooth plaza in Bucks County as early as next year, the Bucks County Courier Times reports.
The system, scheduled for installation in Bristol Township in January, would identify drivers entering or exiting the turnpike at the Delaware River Bridge toll plaza by using high-speed cameras to capture license plates. According to officials, those without E-ZPass will receive a bill in the mail rather than a paper ticket from the tollbooth.
"This will be an all-electronic tolling facility, where you will pay your toll at highway speed," Jay Roth, project manager with Jacobs Engineering, told the Bucks County Courier Times.
The Delaware River Bridge toll plaza, the last turnpike exit for drivers heading east to New Jersey, will be torn down and replaced with “toll-by-plate” technology.
Roughly 55,000 cars and trucks use the toll plaza daily, officials estimate. Eighty percent of them use E-ZPass, said Carl Defebo, commission spokesman.
"There will be no layoffs," Defebo told the Bucks County Courier Times. "Everyone will have a job afterward at a nearby toll plaza."
Thirty-four of the turnpike commission's some 600 toll workers could be affected by the closing of the toll plaza.
Read more from the Bucks County Courier Times.