The Kansas Turnpike Authority opened its first electronic bypass tolling lanes at a terminal in eastern Kansas.
Rachel Bell, business services and customer relations director for KTA, says the “open road tolling” option is for people who use a K-TAG to pay their tolls.
"It’s a large safety enhancement from the perspective that it’s separating those highway speed lanes from the slower or stopped traffic at the toll plaza," Bell says.
Cash lanes are still available for drivers to stop and get or pay a toll ticket.
People who have a K-TAG will receive a bill in the mail. Anyone who uses the electronic tolling lanes without a K-TAG will face a fine starting at about $20.
The Turnpike Authority is adding the open road tolling at terminals in east Topeka and near the southern Kansas border over the next two years.
Bell says the three terminals were selected for open road tolling because they are the only plazas with physical barriers across the roads.
No other terminals will be changed to open road tolling because they are located on on/off ramps where speeds are slower. Bell says the KTA has already implemented video enforcement at 10 toll plazas for electronic lanes.
The KTA says adding the electronic tolling option to the three terminals will cost nearly $50 million. The projects are part of the KTA’s 10-year $1.2 billion plan to modernize and enhance the turnpike system.
--
Follow Deborah Shaar on Twitter @deborahshaar.
To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.
