Cash tolls ending on Route 202 Lambertville-New Hope bridge
LAMBERTVILLE - Cash tolls will be eliminated on the Route 202 bridge over the Delaware River between Lambertville and New Hope, but you still have to pay.
The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) announced June 16 will be the last day that toll collectors will be available to handle cash transactions at the bridge as well as two other low traffic bridges over the river linking Columbia and Portland, Pa. and Montague and Milford, Pa.
Starting June 17, drivers can only pay via E-ZPass or TOLL BY PLATE.
Tolls are charged only for traffic crossing into Pennsylvania.
What to expect
Toll booths will no longer have attendants and toll booth doors and windows will be closed.
Plus, only a limited number of toll lanes may be open at a toll plaza. Any open lane will be able to handle both E-ZPass and TOLL BY PLATE transactions. There will not be separate lanes for E-ZPass and TOLL BY PLATE customers.
How much will it cost
If a motorist does not have E-ZPass, the DRJTBC will use the TOLL BY PLATE system in which a car's license plate number is recorded so the registered owner can be mailed a bill for payment.
The E-ZPass toll is $1.50, while the TOLL BY PLATE charge is $3 because of the higher costs of billing and processing payments.
What happens when you get a bill
If motorists use the TOLL BY PLATE system, the registered vehic;e owner will be sent a bill after 30 days or once the recorded tolled trips on that vehicle exceeds $50, whichever comes first.
If payment is not received by the bill’s prescribed deadline (usually 30 days of issuance), a second bill gets sent an additional $5 late fee.
More: The other New Hope-Lambertville Bridge will be partially closed through summer for repairs
Failure to pay the second bill time will result in the bill being escalated to a toll violation. The $5 toll bill late fee gets reversed, and a $30 administration fee is assessed for each overdue toll transaction.
A violation notice is then mailed to the vehicle owner. If the new escalated amount owed remains unpaid by the violation notice’s payment deadline, a second violation notices gets generated. If that remains unpaid, the violation is advanced to a collection agency.
What about the other bridges
The Trenton-Morrisville (Route 1); I-78; Easton-Phillipsburg (Route 22); and Delaware Water Gap (I-80) Toll Bridges will continue handle cash transactions in addition to E-ZPass and TOLL BY PLATE. These higher-volume bridges are expected to convert to cashless all-electronic tolling by January 2025.
The Scudder Falls Toll Bridge has been a fully cashless operation since it opened in 2019.
Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com
Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Cash tolls ending on Route 202 Lambertville-New Hope bridge
