New Tolling System On Track To Open In June At Route 202 Bridge In Solebury

NEW HOPE, PA. – A series of test runs through the New Hope-Lambertville (Route 202) Toll Bridge’s newly installed open-road cashless all-electronic tolling (AET) gantry have been completed and the facility remains on track to open on a yet-to-be-determined date later this month, the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) announced on Monday.

The facility’s steel-monotube gantry was installed last year and the apparatus was outfitted with cameras, LED vehicle illuminators, and E-ZPass toll reading equipment in December. Wiring, testing, and calibration of the facility subsequently occurred during the first five months of this year, the commission reports.

Subscribe

Last week, commission maintenance and engineering personnel drove a series of different sized vehicles beneath the overhead gantry at different speeds and locations to verify the facility’s accuracy. Technicians are now in the process of reviewing and auditing the resulting recorded data and images.

(Courtesy of the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission)

(Courtesy of the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission)

This is one of the last steps before the two-lane facility can be opened to traffic. An opening date has yet to be determined, but the commission anticipates the highway-speed toll structure will open before the end of June. An opening date announcement could come in the next two weeks.

The toll gantry erection marks the first time the commission is fully converting one of its former cash-collection tolling points to an open-road AET facility. The work is one facet of a roughly 22-month-long project that also includes demolition of the bridge’s former cash-collection toll plaza, repairs and improvements to the bridge’s Pennsylvania abutment, and realignment and reconstruction of the Route 202 road surface on the Pennsylvania side of the bridge.

To carry out the project, the bridge has been reduced to single travel lanes in each direction since last summer. All but one of the bridge’s former toll-collection lanes subsequently were removed. The lone remaining toll lane remained in service to temporarily take toll transactions through E-ZPass and TOLL BY PLATE license-plate billing in the southbound (Pennsylvania bound) direction.

Once the open-road AET facility opens, attention will then shift to removing the lone remaining former toll plaza lane. Upon removal, work will focus on reconstructing the northbound (New Jersey-bound) travel lanes to produce a straightened alignment with the bridge and completing replacement of the bridge’s Pennsylvania abutment. A series of traffic shifts will be instituted to carry out these final project stages. These will be announced at a later date.

All construction is expected to end during the first half of 2027. By that time, the bridge and its approaches will return to two lanes in each direction and all project-related speed and size restrictions will expire.