PA Turnpike Tolls Going Up: Find Out When, How Much

Tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike are going up.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission on Tuesday approved a 6 percent toll increase for both E-ZPass and cash customers. The increase will take effect on Jan. 8, 2017.

Turnpike Commission officials say the increase is necessary to pay back the borrowing required to meet funding obligations for rebuilding and widening the roadway and providing funding to the commonwealth to support public transportation.

When the toll increases go into effect, the most common toll for a passenger vehicle will increase from $1.16 to $1.23 for E-ZPass customers and from $1.80 to $1.95 for cash customers. The most common tolls for tractor-trailers will increase from $9.59 to $10.17 for E-ZPass and from $13.60 to $14.45 for cash.

Toll rates will not increase next year on the turnpike’s Delaware River Bridge cashless tolling point northeast of Philadelphia.

"We have no option but to increase tolls annually moving ahead,” said turnpike CEO Mark Compton. “Right now, traffic and revenue predictions estimate increases of up to six percent per year will be necessary until 2044.”

Commission Chairman Sean Logan said while the turnpike's recent 75th anniversary was "a great accolade," it also means that parts of the system have "outlived their design life and are in dire need of replacement.”

“Revenues from this increase will fund a newly approved, 10-year spending plan which invests more than $5.77 billion in our system in the coming decade — a large part of which will support ongoing total reconstruction and widening projects," Logan said.

Toll revenues are forecast to reach $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2017, officials said.

Additionally on Tuesday, the commissioners ordered a system-wide reassessment of all turnpike improvement projects to confirm "that the best decisions are being made" on capital expenditures.

“I have directed executive staff to perform a comprehensive reevaluation of all highway and bridge projects, including those now under way, to ensure we are focusing on projects that are the most relevant to our strategic objectives,” Logan said. “Every project will be analyzed as part of this review. No project will be exempt.”