January 2026

Open Road Tolling: Know Before You Go

As Open Road Tolling expands to the rest of the mainline of the PA Turnpike, it’s more important now than ever that customers properly mount their E-ZPass transponders.

This cashless, free-flowing system reads transponders at overhead gantries along the highway rather than at toll plazas, creating an increased number of tolling points, making proper transponder mounting crucial. at more locations.

Learn all about it in this video:

'These men saved a life that day:' Nurse Credits PA Turnpike Employees' Quick Actions in Saving Customer

The quick actions of two PA Turnpike Devault Maintenance crew members may have saved a life.

Dec. 10 started like any other day for John Gallagher and Doug Sarver. The two Equipment Operators were returning from the day’s job assignment of removing graffiti when they noticed a car pulled off on the shoulder in the westbound lane near their shed in Malvern. Something seemed off.

The quick actions of Devault Equipment Operators John Gallagher and Doug Sarver helped save a life on the PA Turnpike last month.

“It looked like she was getting out of her car and getting back in,” Sarver recalled when he spotted the driver. “That’s when we whipped over there. Of course, we would have stopped anyway. That’s what we do.”

When they tried to speak with her, she appeared to be confused and was unable to respond.

Gallagher called the PA Turnpike Traffic Operations Center to request an ambulance. That’s where Dispatcher Brad Moyer took the call and had an ambulance enroute within minutes. In the meantime, Gallagher returned to the car and stayed with the woman while Sarver waited outside and followed up on the ambulance’s arrival.

“I was talking to her and praying,” Gallagher said. “This is someone’s daughter, someone’s mother. I had my hand on her head and told her, ‘Everything is going to be OK. We’re here to help you.’"

She collapsed into Gallagher’s arms.

At that moment, Cindy Zimmerman happened to be driving by.

“I glanced over and saw him in the car with her, slumped against him,” Zimmerman recalled. “It didn’t look right, so I pulled over.”

Zimmerman, a registered nurse at the Temple Health Chestnut Hill Hospital, rushed to the vehicle. Gallagher told her, “I don’t think she’s breathing.”

Gallagher reclined the seat and supported the woman’s head while Zimmerman assessed her condition. She was breathing – barely – but Zimmerman could not find a pulse. She immediately began CPR.

An ambulance arrived shortly behind Zimmerman, and she briefed the paramedics and accompanied them to the ambulance while Gallagher and Sarver watched. And waited.

“It felt like hours,” Gallagher said. “When Cindy came back out and gave us the thumbs up, we were relieved.”

The patient had a pulse and was breathing, and paramedics rushed her to the hospital.

Zimmerman said the actions of Gallagher and Sarver likely saved her life.

“They were just amazing,” Zimmerman said. “Between the three of us, we helped her and hopefully got her home to her family for Christmas.”

Pennsylvania State Police confirmed after crews rushed her to the hospital, the customer survived the ordeal.

“It’s a great outcome that you want to hear,” Moyer, the Traffic Ops dispatcher, said. “In times like that, seconds count.”

Traffic Operations Center Dispatcher Brad Moyer took the call from John Gallagher and Doug Sarver and dispatched an ambulance when a customer was having a medical incident on the PA Turnpike.

Raising Awareness: PA Turnpike Shines Spotlight on Human Trafficking

Over the last few years, the PA Turnpike Women’s Network has had quite a few successes with its award-winning Human Trafficking Awareness Campaign, but for Doreen McCall, the biggest win may just be part of the campaign’s name.

Awareness.

McCall, the PA Turnpike’s Chief Counsel and executive sponsor of the Women’s Network’s Human Trafficking Awareness Campaign, said spreading the word is a crucial part of the program, and she sees it every time network members speak to people at events.

“They’re shocked to see the statistics and can’t believe this is happening in their own community,” she said.

For the last four years, members of the PA Turnpike Women’s Network have packed Giving Boxes full of personal-care items to donate to the YWCA Greater Harrisburg.

And the fact that people are talking about it means the campaign is making a difference.

With January being National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, it’s a great time to look at their successes and how the Women’s Network continues to spread the word. 

Over the last few years, the team has connected employees and the public with training and seminars with experts. But it doesn’t end there. The team also placed signs in emergency pull-off areas and at service plazas reminding customers to call *11 to report human trafficking. Service plaza restroom mirrors also bear stickers letting victims and travelers know the universal sign to ask for help. And through their efforts, there is now a feature on the 511PA app allowing travelers to report human trafficking.

Beyond that, the team has been attending everything from National Night Out to community events like Jubilee Day and the PA Farm Show. Team members have been guests on podcasts and have spoken at industry conferences, as part of their raising awareness efforts.

Women’s Network leader Karen Muro has been involved from the beginning, and she’s particularly proud of a recent event when the team visited several PA Turnpike service plazas and handed out human trafficking awareness material and spoke with travelers in an effort to raise awareness statewide simultaneously.

“We do it one mile at a time,” Muro said.

Members of the PA Turnpike Women’s Network attended Jubilee Day in Mechanicsburg to raise awareness about human trafficking.

She is thankful PA Turnpike employees, who play a crucial role, from Maintenance crews who watch for suspicious signs, to the Traffic Operations Center taking the calls, and to all those who donate to events like the Giving Box campaign, which provides boxes of essentials to human trafficking survivors at the YWCA Greater Harrisburg.

“That’s something I’m most proud of -- to work for an organization where everyone in every position gives 100 percent,” Muro said. “It’s just heartwarming to know that together, we’re saving lives.”

Learn more about the program here.

PennSTART: Ground Broken on State-of-the-Art Facility, Test Track

For an engineer, spending eight years on a project is not unusual, but for Joe Sutor, one long-planned project is now moving from concept to concrete, bringing a special sense of satisfaction.

“We’re finally turning some dirt,” said Sutor, the Pennsylvania Turnpike’s Planning and Design Services Manager.

That project is PennSTART, a new transportation and emergency response test track taking shape in Westmoreland County, and Sutor is proud to see ground was officially broken last month.

A drone provides an overhead view of work at the PennSTART facility in Westmoreland County.

PennSTART will serve as a hands-on training site for approximately 54,000 first responders, while also acting as a proving ground for emerging transportation technologies. Those technologies include connected and autonomous vehicles, field robotics, and other innovations shaping the future of roadway safety and mobility.

The project’s first phase includes a high-speed test track and a dynamic, multi-purpose area designed for customized training and testing. Future phases are planned to add signalized and unsignalized intersections, along with urban and rural environment simulations, allowing users to replicate real-world driving and incident conditions.

The $25 million investment for Phase One is funded through a partnership that includes the PA Turnpike, the Regional Industrial Development Corporation (RIDC), PennDOT, the Hillman Foundation, and Pennsylvania’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program.

At its core, PennSTART is built for realism. The track will simulate live roadway conditions, Sutor said, with staged crash scenes that allow first responders to practice traffic-incident management live and in person. Towing companies will also be able to train in a realistic but controlled environment, removing wrecked vehicles from active incident scenes.

“From an incident management perspective, that hands-on training is invaluable,” said Mike Pack, the PA Turnpike’s Manager of Incident Management and Traffic Operations. “That’s a benefit not just for the Turnpike, but for everyone.”

Construction is expected to take about eight months, with the track opening later this year. Sutor is especially excited to welcome first responders -- most of whom are volunteers who could benefit from this specialized training environments.

The facility’s potential extends well beyond incident response. A two-mile loop includes a straightaway long enough for tractor-trailers to reach highway speeds, making it ideal for testing advanced vehicle technologies.

Companies such as Stack AV are already using the site to test automated vehicles, while planned intersections, overpasses, and drone-friendly environments will support expanded training and research.

Plans are also underway to install fiber-optic lines around the track, too, enabling testing of tolling systems and other technologies that allow vehicles and infrastructure to communicate.

After years of presentations and planning, Sutor says the most rewarding moment is still ahead.

“For eight years, I kept telling people, ‘It’s going to happen,’” he said. “Now we’ll finally be able to say, ‘It’s open.’”

And while PennSTART represents economic opportunity and technological advancement, its greatest impact may be the real-world training it provides to those who respond first when PA Turnpike customers need help the most.

Find out more at the PennSTART website.