>50% toll increase slated for NJ Turnpike and Garden state Parkway on January 1st.
The second phase of a toll increase approved in 2008 by the Corzine administration will go into effect on the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden state Parkway at 6:30am January 1st 2012 .
There were four public hearings in the fall of 2008. With the approval of then Gov. Jon Corzine, the Turnpike Authority Board of Commissioners adopted the two-phase toll increase after the final hearing on October 10, 2008. The rst phase went into effect Dec. 1, 2008. The second phase will go into effect Jan. 1, 2012.
How much will tolls increase? 53 percent on the New Jersey Turnpike, 50 percent on the Garden State Parkway. For speci c toll rates, see the revised toll tables on the Turnpike Authority Web site (www.state.nj.us/turnpike/toll-rates.html).
If the Turnpike Authority has been cutting costs and reducing the number of employees, why is a toll hike necessary? The additional revenue from the two-phase toll increase is not being used to pay operating costs. Instead, the revenue is funding the New Jersey Turnpike Authority’s $7 billion capital program and other transportation projects.
What projects are in the capital program? The revenue has enabled the Turnpike Authority to nance a 10-year, $7 billion capital program that includes the Turnpike widening between Interchanges 6 and 9, the Parkway widening south of Toms River and dozens of other projects that will relieve congestion, restore bridges, improve interchanges, expand the use of intelligent transportation systems, and increase safety on both roadways.
Will we see any immediate benefits from the capital plan? Yes. The work is creating thousands of private sector jobs. A study done for the New Jersey DOT and the Federal Highway Administration by Rutgers University in 2009 found that, on average, each $1 million of spending on transportation infrastructure projects in New Jersey sustains 10 jobs for a year. That means the Turnpike Authority’s $7 billion capital program will create or sustain some 70,000 jobs.
How do the toll rates on the Turnpike and Parkway compare to other toll roads around the country? At 4.8 cents per mile, the Garden State Parkway will remain among the lowest-priced toll roads in the U.S., less expensive even than rural toll roads such as the Oklahoma Turnpike and the West Virginia Turnpike. The New Jersey Turnpike, at 11.4 cents per mile, will remain less expensive than similar urban toll roads such as the Miami-Dade Expressway and the Massachusetts Turnpike, both of which cost around 20 cents per mile, and the Delaware Turnpike (I-95), which costs about 35 cents per mile.
https://www.state.nj.us/turnpike/documents/njta_toll_incre_2012.pdf
