The 47-mile long Atlantic City Expressway is seeking proposals from companies to provide a turnkey, all-electronic toll collection system that could be expanded to all public toll authorities in the state, according to documents released by the South Jersey Transportation Authority.
Companies that bid are expected to design, develop, install, test, operate and maintain a “fully functional, turnkey all-electronic toll system” that could be extended to the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which runs the Turnpike and Garden State Parkway. Bids are due at 2 p.m., March 11.
Under the current schedule, a contract could be awarded in July and all-electronic tolling could be operational on the Expressway by spring 2025, said Kimberly Testa, a South Jersey Transportation Authority spokeswoman. The Authority runs the A.C. Expressway, which has two large barrier toll plazas.
What that means for drivers is the end of stopping or slowing at toll plazas, which will ultimately be demolished and replaced with overhead gantries that have toll tag readers and cameras. Tolls would be paid with E-ZPass or pay-by-mail only for drivers without E-ZPass accounts.
The majority of drivers on the toll roads, 85% on the Expressway, 89% on the Turnpike and 88% on the Parkway, already use E-ZPass, Authority statistics said.
Similar to what is done in other states, the owners of vehicles without an E-ZPass account would have their license plates photographed and a bill for the toll sent to the owner’s address.
While cashless tolling would be implemented on the Expressway first, combining both agencies in the same proposal should result in scales of efficiency and cost savings, Testa said.
The Turnpike Authority would have the option to piggyback on the Expressway contract when it comes time to switch to all-electronic tolls on the Parkway and Turnpike, said Tom Feeney, an Authority spokesman.
“The NJTA would have the option to buy the same set up from the same vendor under the same terms,” he said. “The switch to AET is in the NJTA long-range capital program, but it has not been scheduled yet.”
That $24 billion capital plan calls for spending $400 million to design and install all electronic toll collection on the Turnpike and $500 million for the Parkway. It provides 60 months for planning and design and 36 months for construction on both toll roads, the plan said.
Under the RFP details, the Parkway could follow the Expressway by converting toll plazas to “open road tolling.” Locations of first plazas to be converted would be determined after a planning process.
The Turnpike, which has a more complicated toll structure, could follow the Parkway. No dates are specified when that could happen.
The RFP marks a significant change for New Jersey toll agencies, which have put off going cashless for years, citing concerns about losses due to toll scofflaws.
In 2011, Turnpike and Parkway toll collector unions made some contract concessions and the Authority dropped threats to privatize toll collection, but going cashless was raised. At that time, officials predicted that all-electronic toll collection was two years away. Collectors signed a new contract in December 2020, which some considered their last agreement, covering 550 people.
Cashless toll collection was temporarily used by toll agencies during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, starting in March 2020, to reduce the handling of cash and potential spread of COVID-19, on the Expressway, Parkway and Turnpike. But the state’s three major toll roads returned to cash toll collection in May 2020.
Meanwhile the Port Authority has moved ahead with cashless tolling, having converted its three bridges between Staten Island and New Jersey to cashless tolls. The Holland Tunnel tolls went cash free in December 2020.
Port Authority officials expect cash toll collection to permanently end at the Lincoln Tunnel and the George Washington Bridge by mid-2022 when construction and installation of new tolling technology is expected to be completed.
An approach from the Palisades Parkway to the George Washington Bridge has already been converted to cashless tolls. Work started in November at the Lincoln Tunnel to eliminate cash tolls, where an overhead gantry was erected housing E-ZPass readers and cameras and inductive loops installed in the roadway.
Cashless tolling is touted by officials as being safer than having traffic stop to pay tolls at a physical toll plaza, based on a Port Authority study of Staten Island crossings that converted to all electronic collection. Two people were killed in a fatal collision at the NJ Turnpike toll plaza at exit 14 C in February of 2016. More recently, three people were killed in a fiery crash after a car slammed into an A.C. Expressway toll plaza on Dec. 26.
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