Garden State Parkway Tolls To Go Cashless, Jersey Turnpike Could Too

NEW JERSEY — Highway officials plan to eliminate cash tolls on two major New Jersey roadways — most likely within the next few years.

The South Jersey Transportation Authority's (SJTA) Board of Commissioners approved a plan last Thursday to make the Atlantic City Expressway's tolls all-electronic. The New Jersey Turnpike Authority's (NJTA) board followed Wednesday to award a $914 million plan to bring cashless tolls to its roads, making the Garden State Parkway all-electronic in the process.

The NJTA will also decide whether to eliminate cash tolls on the Jersey Turnpike.

Both will likely take a few years to fully implement. The SJTA expects the Atlantic City Expressway to go electronic by Memorial Day 2025. Switching the Parkway to cashless tolling will likely take three to four years, says Thomas Feeney, a spokesperson for the NJTA.

"What the Turnpike Authority board did yesterday was approve an agreement for the purchase of the technology that will be used when the Parkway is converted to all-electronic tolling," Feeney told Patch. "We don’t have a firm date at this time. There is a lot of planning, design, and construction that needs to be done before the technology will even be installed."

The Turnpike Authority, which maintains the Garden State Parkway and Jersey Turnpike, voted unanimously to award a $914 million contract to bring all-electric toll collection to its roads. The agreement leaves the NJTA with two options for the Turnpike: converting to all-electronic tolling or maintaining a version of the current system which will still include cash collections. The agency will make a decision in the future, Feeney says.

The Parkway currently has one cashless toll plaza on the southbound lanes at Exit 125 in Sayreville.

The SJTA approved a $159 million contract to build the all-electronic system for the Atlantic City Expressway. Both contracts went to Transcore LP — a Nashville, Tennessee-based company that announced July 25 it will open a New Jersey office in Union.