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December 2023

Since 2018, JBC has been providing CM/CI Services to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) in their efforts to convert their toll system to Open Road Tolling (ORT).  Open Road Tolling is a cashless, free-flowing mode of collecting tolls without traditional toll plazas or tollbooths.  ORT is better for the environment, reduces accidents, allows new access points to be more easily added and helps save the Turnpike more than $75 million a year.

As part of our 8-year agreement, JBC has overseen construction of a Pilot Project that built a complete all electronic toll facility on the Northeast Extension and 5 separate signing projects covering the entire Turnpike system that updated signing and replaced it with "Toll by Plate" signing. Currently, JBC is wrapping up 6 separate construction projects that are building 18 tolling sites on the eastern part of the Turnpike system, from the Reading Interchange to the NJ state line and the entire Northeast Extension.  Each new tolling site consists of a monotube gantry structure spanning the mainline Turnpike which will hold EZ-Pass readers and cameras to collect data from motorists and a new concrete utility building to house the electrical and communications equipment necessary to transmit the data to the Turnpike’s Customer Services Center in Harrisburg.  Each new utility building includes a backup generator, uninterruptible power supplies, and HVAC equipment to maintain temperatures inside the building within the tolling equipment’s required operating ranges. 

After completion of the civil work at the new tolling locations, the Turnpike’s toll equipment vendor, TransCore, will install new high-speed tolling equipment.  The new tolling sites are scheduled to be activated in January 2025, at which time, the equipment in the existing toll plazas will become obsolete. Starting in early 2025, JBC will then provide CM/CI services on 4 contracts to demolish the existing toll plazas, except for a few interchange buildings the Turnpike plans to repurpose for other uses. 

With $63 million worth of work either complete or in construction and another $35-40 million in the pipeline, the ORT Conversion is the largest CM/CI agreement JBC Associates has held with the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. 

To view the ORT under construction, visit https://fb.watch/luYwafMjwf/ as captured by Chris Carbutt of the JBC team.