The Warrendale toll plaza on the Pennsylvania Turnpike will be the next one to eliminate toll booths.
The Turnpike Commission recently approved a $4 million contract with TransCore LP to replace the current North Hills plaza that is a combination of toll booths and free-flowing lanes for E-ZPass users. The turnpike switched to all-electronic tolling — those without E-ZPass have a photo taken of their license and receive a bill in the mail — in March, about 16 months earlier than expected to meet a goal of limiting human interaction during the coronavirus pandemic.
The new plaza, which also will be on the main line between the Route 8 and Perry Highway interchanges, will be about a half-mile east of the current location. An overhead gantry will read the pre-paid E-ZPass transponder in a motorist’s vehicle or take the license plate photo.
Turnpike spokesman Carl DeFebo said the new plaza should open in spring 2022. At this point, there is no schedule when the existing plaza and toll booths will be demolished.
Warrendale will join Turnpike Route 66 in Westmoreland County, Gateway near the Ohio border in Lawrence County, the Beaver Valley Expressway and the Findlay Connector as plazas that already have eliminated toll booths.
As part of the switch to all-electronic tolling, the turnpike will install 43 overhead gantries on the highway over the next six years. It also has long-term plans to eliminate all of the toll plazas at interchanges.
That will allow the turnpike to redesign the interchanges to create free-flowing entry and exit ramps that should have easier and safer merge points. That initially was expected to cost several hundred million dollars and take about six years to complete, but that schedule may be delayed as a result of the agency expecting to lose more than $200 million in revenue due to the pandemic this year.
Traffic and revenue aren’t expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024.
Ed Blazina: eblazina@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1470 or on Twitter @EdBlazina.
First Published: November 29, 2020, 7:25 p.m.
