Pennsylvania Turnpike Milepost 290 East, ORT Monotube Erection.Since 2018, JBC has been providing Construction Management and Construction Inspection (CM/CI) Services to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) in their efforts to convert its toll system to Open Road Tolling (ORT). In an ORT system, tolls are charged electronically as customers drive beneath overhead gantry structures between interchanges without slowing down or stopping.
As part of our 8-year agreement, JBC has overseen construction of the Pilot Project on the Northeast Extension and five (5) separate signing projects that covered the entire Turnpike system. Presently, we are wrapping up six (6) separate projects to construct 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 Service Center in Harrisburg.
The PTC is currently working to install new high-speed tolling equipment at each new tolling site. The new tolling sites are scheduled to be activated in January 2025, which will render the existing toll plazas at each interchange obsolete. Starting in early 2025, JBC will then provide CM/CI services on four (4) contracts to demolish the existing toll plazas, with the exception of a few interchange buildings that the Turnpike will repurpose for other uses.
ORT offers a safer, more convenient way to travel. Non-stop travel means lower emissions, less fuel, and a cleaner environment. Eliminating tollbooths reduces the footprint — or property impacts — of interchanges [taken from: Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission website] — this is one major step toward the PTC achieving its goal of becoming America’s First Sustainable Superhighway by 2040.
→ Mar 15, 2024
