NEW HOPE, PA. – The New Hope-Lambertville (Route 202) Toll Bridge’s newly installed open-road cashless all-electronic tolling (AET) gantry is expected to begin handling highway-speed toll transaction sometime between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday, June 22*, the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) announced today.
Testing and calibrating of the facility’s cameras, LED vehicle illuminators, and E-ZPass toll reading equipment ended recently. A Commission contractor is now in the process of completing other tasks that will enable live traffic to pass through the modernized tolling point. The new facility replaces a former canopy-covered cash-collection lane established with the bridge’s 1971 opening and later modified for southbound-only toll collections and E-ZPass service in late 2002.
Southbound and northbound Route 202 motorists will experience a series of traffic shifts and other changes once the overhead toll gantry comes online:
- The open-road tolling gantry will initially only handle one lane of southbound traffic for several weeks; the second lane beneath the gantry is expected to open sometime in July.
- All southbound traffic will be shifted to a standard 12-foot-wide highway travel lane on the toll bridge’s upstream side.
- The current 10-foot-wide southbound traffic width restriction will be eliminated.
- Northbound motorists will encounter a slight shift to the downstream side in the vicinity of the tolling area.
- The 11-foot-wide northbound travel restriction will remain in effect through the project area.
- Northbound vehicles will continue to be restricted to the current travel lane on the toll bridge downstream side.
- Motorists will continue to experience speed restrictions in both directions as work activities shift to a barricaded central section of the toll bridge and its Pennsylvania highway approach.
A transitional construction phase will begin after the new traffic patterns get established. This work will involve removal of the old cash-collection toll plaza’s remaining canopy-covered lane and the installation of a new permanent reinforced concrete center-median divider through the toll area. Barring unanticipated delays, this project phase is expected to end by mid-August.
Following completion of this transitional phase, 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. More information will be provided at a later date.
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 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. Any remaining project-related speed and size restrictions would then expire.
*Note – The scheduled time and date for the start of the open-road tolling (ORT) service is subject to change due to weather, emergencies, and other factors.
