PA Turnpike this weekend is introducing a new way to calculate tolls and starting ‘open road’ collection

Sometimes change moves at the speed of a glacier, but it’s arriving in a flash early Sunday morning on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

That’s when the number of axles and height of any vehicle will determine its toll rate, as opposed to weight, as has been the case since the turnpike opened in 1940. Officials say the change means motorists will be charged a more consistent per-mile rate.

At the same time, the turnpike will turn on open road tolling (ORT) east of Reading and along the Northeast Extension. Tolls will be charged electronically as customers drive at highway speeds beneath overhead structures called gantries located between interchanges.

“It’s kind of all at once … but there had to be a Band-Aid day,” said Craig Shuey, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission’s chief operating officer, referring to the perception that quickly tearing the dressing off a scrape minimizes pain.

The two big changes are designed to work in concert, as tolls will be calculated according to a vehicle’s axle-and-height classification along with miles traveled and the number of gantries passed.

“We are the only system that still uses scales and still weighs every vehicle as it rolls across,” Shuey said.

The turnpike said in a news release that about half of passenger car trips will cost drivers who use EZ-Pass less than they paid last year. Commercial vehicles with EZ-Pass are expected to pay more, but 70% of them should see increases of $5 or less, the release said.

Tolls will increase by 5% on Sunday, too, but that has been an annual event since 2007, when state law began requiring the turnpike to help fund public transportation.

The tolls had to go up to pay off the bond debt that financed those contributions.

» READ MORE: The Pa. Turnpike has helped keep public transit afloat for years. Now what?

When open road tolling goes live Sunday in the east, gantries will begin reading E-ZPasses or license plates to charge customers. Cameras will be switched off at the remaining toll booths at interchanges from Reading east to New Jersey and north to Clarks Summit.

Eighty-six percent of turnpike customers use EZ-Pass, which confers a steep discount.

The turnpike plans to begin demolishing the eastern booths later this year, and they are supposed to be gone by the end of 2026. Then crews will work westward, where gantries are already going up in some places. The entire main stem of the toll road, from Bensalem to Ohio, is due to have converted to ORT by the end of 2027.

The new vehicle classifications go into effect west of Reading on Sunday, too, but for now tolls will continue to be paid at interchanges there.

Ramps also will be redesigned and constructed to be safer and take up less space.

“We want to clear the interchanges of the current configuration where traffic is funneled through small, narrow lanes and traffic has to weave on either side to get from one direction to the next,” Shuey said.

“We’re going to create a much safer, more environmentally friendly, less congested transition from our road to other roads, or from other roads to us,” he said.

The conversion to all-electronic toll collection was launched almost two decades ago and will cost more than $600 million from planning to demolition and construction by the time it is done, officials said.

Turnpike staff analyzed 317,000 potential trip combinations for travelers based on distance driven, vehicle type, and payment method and believe that the effects of the changes will balance overall.

“It’s revenue neutral” for the turnpike, Shuey said. “We’re not supposed to gain anything. We’re not supposed to lose anything. We believe some toll payers will see a little bit less of an increase than others. Some will see a little bit more.”