CLEVELAND — If you've driven the Ohio Turnpike, you've noticed some changes, especially in the form of the Mainline Toll Plazas built in recent years, like the one just east of Cleveland in Lordstown. It's one of four constructed ahead of the Turnpike's switch to open road tolling, allowing E-ZPass customers to travel the entire 241-mile length of the Turnpike without stopping to pay a toll.
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In addition, seven of the 31 toll plazas are being eliminated with the switch.
In our last update at Thanksgiving, though, the plan was to have the new system up and running after the first of the year. With the calendar changing to March this week, News 5 viewer Nikita emailed us to ask, "What is causing these delays? When will the new tolling system be launched?"
So, we spoke with Turnpike Executive Director Ferzan Ahmed, who updated us on the work.
"It's very complicated when you switch from one system to another system. It is very hard to just kind of flip a switch and make it happen," Ahmed said. "There are several things that go into an open road tolling system; one is what we call the roadside work, which is all of the equipment and cameras and radars and sensors that we put on the road, and the other is what we call the back office system which is what makes the transactions happen. The back office system is not something that you can see, it's software and processing. That has been implemented, it is up and running so the new system is processing the transactions."
As for the hardware out on Turnpike itself, crews are still testing to ensure the glitches are worked out so that the cameras and sensors aren't missing anything.
"I'll give you an example," he said. "What happens if a vehicle cuts off another vehicle right under the sensor? Will our sensor be able to read the E-ZPass in those vehicles, or will they be able to capture the license plate images so we can process the tolls? These are the kinds of scenarios that we run at night with our own control vehicles to see how well the system is performing."
But Nikita also wrote to ask, "Is the Turnpike losing money by letting the new toll plazas sit empty?"
Ahmed says no, tolls are still being collected on all vehicles, and actually, one of the reasons for the delay is to make sure that it accurately happens once it goes live. Ensuring that customers aren't overbilled, which hurts them or underbilled, which hurts the Turnpike.
"Our specifications require 99.8% accuracy for us to have that comfort level; we're very close," Ahmed said.
Close, meaning a couple of weeks away, he said. In the meantime, customers are already seeing changes like the self-serve kiosks at toll plazas, where those without E-ZPass can pay by either cash or card.
Using an E-ZPass, though, saves drivers the hassle of dealing with this and an additional 33% on their tolls.
You can watch more about the plan for "open road" tolling on the Ohio Turnpike in the player below:
