No toll hikes for DRPA’s New Jersey, Pennsylvania spans

CAMDEN, N.J. — It will cost motorists the same to cross the Delaware River Port Authority’s bridges between New Jersey and Pennsylvania next year.

The DRPA's commissioners on Wednesday voted to postpone a scheduled toll increase for the Ben Franklin, Walt Whitman, Commodore Barry, and Betsy Ross Bridges until at least 2023. It marked the eleventh year the agency has held the line on tolls for the Delaware River spans, the DRPA said in a news release.

The current toll schedule, implemented in July 2011, included automatic biennial toll increases based upon increases in the Consumer Price Index for the Philadelphia region, the DRPA said.

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers in the region increased 1% from August to October, the fifth consecutive 2-month increase, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last month.

The region's CPI rose 5.6% over the last 12 months, the largest over-the year increase since February 1991. the bureau said.

The board also approved a 2022 operating budget of $306.8 million, up 0.53% from 2021. It expects to collect approximately $356.1 million in revenue generated primarily from bridge tolls based upon expectations that the coronavirus pandemic will continue to impact travel between the two states.