Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission Highlights 2023 Successes While Looking Forward to Major Projects Down the Road
Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission Highlights 2023 Successes
While Looking Forward to Major Projects Down the Road
HARRISBURG, PA — As the year ends, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is reflecting back on a year of immense progress on “America’s First Superhighway” while also looking ahead to one of the biggest changes in its 83-year history.
“The PTC has been the leader in transportation from the day our highway opened, and we continue to be an organization that isn’t afraid to re-invent how we do business, transform who we are to our customers and reimagine our place in the communities we connect,” said PTC Chairman and PennDOT Secretary Michael Carroll. “Modernization and innovation are not the exceptions here; they are the norm and the foundation for our decision-making.
“Our 1,300 talented and committed employees care deeply about safety and customer service. I am proud of what our team has accomplished this year and the work they will continue to do to lead the transformation of our historic roadway in the years to come.”
SAFETY
From Jan. 1 through Nov. 30, the Turnpike’s Maintenance Utility Workers and the GEICO Safety Patrol team assisted in 39,711 incidents, in addition to their routine patrols, as part of our commitment to making travel safer for our customers.
In December, the PA House and Senate approved and Gov. Josh Shapiro signed Act 38 of 2023 into law, which makes the Automated Work Zone Speed Enforcement (AWZSE) program permanent.
According to the 2023 AWZSE Annual Report, there has been a 47% reduction in excessive speeding (11+ mph over the speed limit) in work zones and 38% in overall speeding (1+ mph over the speed limit) since the program began in March 2020. The initiative has been fully supported by the PTC, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) and the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP).
The Turnpike also worked with PSP to resume Operation Orange Squeeze where PSP troopers trade in their cruisers for construction vehicles to help monitor unsafe behaviors like speeding and distracted driving specifically within work zones across the system.
RIDEABILITY
From Jan. 1 through Dec. 1, the Turnpike has seen more than 192 million customers use our more than 560-miles of roadway, a 3.3% increase in volume compared to the same period in 2022.
In research conducted by the PTC, 80% of users indicate the PA Turnpike is a convenient way to travel within our state. Once on the roadway, 61% of our customers report an excellent or very good experience that consists of convenience, optimal highway speed, safety, and a well-maintained road.
In 2023, the PTC spent more than $690 million in roadway maintenance and improvements to modernize the Turnpike and improve customer experience including resurfacing more than 46 miles of roadway, undertaking total reconstruction of an all-time high additional concurrent 27 miles statewide and replacing two major bridges at Beaver River and Hawk Falls.
The PTC will continue construction on one if its most transformative projects in the highway’s history. Gantries continued to be constructed to allow the Turnpike to move to Open Road Tolling (ORT). These new highway-speed collection points are being built along the system to allow for a cashless, free-flowing mode of collecting tolls without traditional toll plazas or tollbooths. ORT is expected to go live east of the Reading Interchange (Exit 286) to the New Jersey line and along the entire Northeastern Extension (I-476) in the beginning of 2025, with points west of Reading expected to become operational in 2027.
The Turnpike continues installation of a fiber optic network across the entire system, with projects east of Harrisburg complete and that west of Harrisburg underway. The fiber optic network meets future needs of ORT, supports connected and automated vehicle technology, and will be built to include extra lines for commercialization and potential extension to underserved communities.
The Turnpike also celebrated a groundbreaking for the beginning of construction for the southern section of the Mon/Fayette Expressway’s PA Route 51 to I-376 project.
Information on other improvement projects currently in the works can be found here.
ENHANCING VALUE
86% of our customers have now embraced EZPass — paying a rate that is below the national toll road average and up to 60% less than the Toll by Plate rate.
As part of our ongoing financial efforts, PTC operating expenses for Fiscal Year 2023 (June 1, 2022 – May 31, 2023) came in about $60 million (14%) under budget and have declined 2.7% in aggregate from FY2019 through FY2023. Accordingly, two leading credit agencies (Moody’s and S&P) upgraded our credit rating this year to “AA” for the first time since Act 44 was first enacted in 2007, which has required the Turnpike to pay nearly $8 billion to PennDOT since 2007. The credit rating upgrade is expected to save the PTC tens of millions of dollars in interest rate savings over the next 30 years.
Enhancements to Act 112 went into effect January 2023, lowering the threshold for vehicle registration suspension from the original $500 to $250. Act 112, originally passed in 2018, allows the PTC to request the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) suspend vehicle registration on Pennsylvania motorists with unpaid tolls. Nearly 28,000 suspension letters were sent between January and November, more than double for the same period last year due to the lower thresholds.
The PTC works diligently to collect every dollar owed and the following efforts continued through 2023.
- Working with collection agencies
- Working with District Attorneys and district magistrate offices across Pennsylvania to file charges against those who refuse to pay
- Participation in toll industry task force looking at ways to mitigate revenue leakage across the toll industry.
- Working with peer agencies on reciprocal agreements and pilots to test toll enforcement efforts across state boundaries.
INNOVATION
The PTC was honored with two International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) Toll Excellence Awards for Safety and Sustainability, the first time any agency won multiple awards in the same year. The PTC was also honored with state awards for achievements in sustainability, diversity and our Human Trafficking Awareness Campaign, among others.
In 2023, the PTC continued to partner with the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA) through Art Sparks to install local, student-produced art pieces in every service plaza system-wide. Five new installations were installed this year, bringing the total number of projects completed to 13 out of 17 plazas.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Video and pictures for this story can be found here. (Images are located under the Video Basic Information tab as well as the link to download the video.)
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Media Contacts
Central PA - Rosanne Placey: rplacey@paturnpike.com, (717) 675-4362
Eastern PA - Kathleen Walter: kwalter@paturnpike.com, (267) 326-3856
Western PA - Crispin Havener: chavener@paturnpike.com, (717) 870-2841