Turnpike Commission Updates Public on Construction

Residents of Hampton, West Deer, Indiana and Harmar Townships are invited to an open house to update them on a 200 million dollar reconstruction and widening project for the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Residents will be presented with project plans, bridge replacement information and future detours. Project-team members will also be on hand to present and discuss information about noise analysis and impact to property owners.

Tom Fox, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, says that the road will have an effect on current homeowners in the area. "We've informed residents who's property could be effected by this, inviting them to come and to talk with our property acquisition people if their property might be effected in some way, shape, or form and to give them general information about the studies we'll be conducting."

Fox says that the project is part of a six year 700 million dollar effort to rebuild the turnpike. He says that all of the finds were from the Turnpike and that much of it is toll money going back to the community.

The project will begin with the construction of six bridges over the turnpike and will begin in early 2012. It involves widening the existing roadway from four lanes with a 10 foot median to six lanes with a 26 foot median and constructing new storm-water facilities and wetland and stream mitigation.

The open house is scheduled for March 29th from 6-9 p.m. in the Great Room of the Hampton Township Community Center.

Turnpike Fares Increase For New Year

In 2011, for the first time since the introduction of electronic E-ZPass transponders, travelers who use the device will pay significantly less than those using only cash. The toll increases 3% for E-ZPass users and 10% for drivers who pay with cash.

“Most of our customers already use E-Zpass, in fact two-thirds of our motorists now pay electronically,” DeFebo says. “It’s much more efficient. It’s safer because there’s no stopping and fewer traffic backlogs through the toll areas.”

In order to remain compliant with Pennsylvania’s Act 44, which requires the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to pay $450 million annually to PennDOT for road maintenance across the state, fares will be raised annually to meet that figure. To this point, the PTC has given $2.5 billion in funding to PennDOT and will continue funding through the remaining 47 years of the agreement. Formerly, the turnpike revenue was reinvested internally, therefore not requiring significant increases.



The Turnpike Commission had also planned to stop printing toll prices on tickets beginning Jan. 1, as a cost-cutting measure. However, after public outcry and a letter of disagreement from Auditor General Jack Wagner, the printed fares will remain. However, until a new batch of tickets can be printed with the higher tolls, the tickets will reflect the old tolls but you still will have to pay the higher amount.

Turnpike Studying Conversion to All-Electronic Toll Collection

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has hired a consultant to conduct a year long study in which they will access whether they think a move towards an all-electronic toll collection system.

They will pay the Philadelphia and South Carolina-based firms around 1.5 to 2 million dollars. The firms will put together a report documenting tolling options, system requirements, estimated costs, traffic and revenue impacts and implementation schedule.

Carl DeFabo, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission called electronic tolling safer, more convenient and more energy efficient because cars aren't idling at toll booths.

There are 620 toll collectors in Pennsylvania. DeFabo said they are simply studying how efficient this electronic system would be.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has made a U-turn and voided a decision to stop printing the tolls on the tickets in January when higher fees take effect. The commission had said by not printing the new tolls, it would save about $100,000.
Commission CEO Joe Brimmeier said staff had ordered new toll tickets for 2011 without the fares as part of the agency's ongoing efforts to save costs.

"Our staff made the decision not to print fares on tickets to cut costs, in particular as more people sign up for E-ZPass and fewer people take tickets." However, we heard loud and clear from our customers that we got ahead of ourselves on the decision, so the commissioners directed us to order a new batch of toll tickets with fares shown."

However, that will take until March or April. In the meantime, the tickets without the new fares (a 10 percent increase for cash-paying motorists and a 3 percent increase for E-ZPass users) will be issued to cash-paying customers at entry beginning Jan. 2, 2011, the effective date of the toll increase. You'll still have to pay the higher tolls, they just won't be reflected on the tickets.

Brimmeier says they will have printed schedules available at interchanges that customers can obtain by asking the toll collector at exit. Turnpike travelers can also see the new fare schedule by visiting www.paturnpike.com and selecting the "Toll-Info" menu item on the left or by calling the toll-free, hands-free TRIP line, 1-866-976-8747 (TRIP).

Wagner: Keep Turnpike Toll Notifications

Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner says the Turnpike Commission’s plan to stop printing toll amounts on tickets should be reversed.

Wagner says because tolls will increase 10% on January 1, removing the prices from the tickets on January 2 is dishonest to the public.

Wagner says drivers also wouldn’t know if a tollbooth operator was charging them too much or too little for their trip, and tollbooth transactions would take longer and increase Turnpike congestion. He adds that the tickets themselves would still need to be printed, so tollbooth operators know how much to charge.

The Auditor General wrote to the Turnpike Commission, saying the $100,000 it can save each year is not enough to justify the confusion and lack of transparency caused by omitting the prices.

However, Wagner says he received an “encouraging” email from the Commission saying it would probably nix the plan to stop printing prices. He says he is still waiting for a formal reply.

New Wetland for North Park

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and the Allegheny County Parks Department today dedicated a recently constructed wetland and stream mitigation site on the North Fork of Pine Creek in North Park.

Why is the Turnpike Commission in the wetland business? Widening the turnpike between mileposts 31 and 38 eliminated a wetland, so by law, the commission had to compensate by creating a new one. It happens frequently, according to CEO Joe Brimmeier. 4,000 trees and shrubs are already flourishing on the 1.8 acre site, and four bat houses have been installed.

Volunteers will build a boardwalk from what is now the North Dakota picnic shelter, hopefully by next fall, which will become an educational destination for school groups and others.

Cherokee naturalist Earl Dingus of Latodami Environmental says the new wetland's name relates to the Seneca native tribe that was dominant in the area. He says the name Wahdo:Gwas is a Seneca term for "Rising from the Water".

The wetland will slow down and clean the water flowing through it.

EZ Pass Fees Will Rise

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is doubling the EZ Pass transponder fee from $3 a year to $6 a year, effective January 1st . EZ Pass customers set up prepaid accounts and mount transponders inside their windshields that make electronic deductions so they don’t have to stop at toll or ticket booths.

EZ Pass is good in fourteen states, and this is the first fee increase since the Pennsylvania system began in 2000, according to Turnpike spokesperson Carl DeFebo. He says it’s still a reasonable fee since people who sign up in some other states pay 12 to 18 dollars a year.

To sweeten the pill, when tolls go up on January 2nd, DeFebo says tolls for EZ Pass customers will go up only 3%, compared to %10 for cash customers. The toll savings will more than offset the fee increase for many, he says.

People who sign up before January 1st will pay just the $3 fee until their annual renewal in 2011. Most people set up their EZ Pass accounts at paturnpike.com, according to DeFebo, but it can be done at some Getgo stations, at Giant Eagle markets and AAA offices.