While many details of this general directive still need to be determined, the tolling concept would include the following elements:

• Cashless tolling. This will consist of gantries across the roadway - westbound direction only - that would include E-ZPass electronic-toll-collection readers and high-resolution cameras. Motorists with E-ZPass would pay their tolls electronically at high-ways speeds. Motorists without E-ZPass would have their license plates photographed - at highway speeds -- and would be sent bills in the mail.
  
• There would not be any conventional toll booths that would cause traffic stoppages or congestion.
  
• Tolls would be collected in the westbound direction only.

While it will still be some time before tolls can be collected at this location, the Commission felt it was obliged to state its intentions to establish a toll well ahead of time after making an assessment of its overall capital program needs, its current system of funding the capital program, and -- most notably --the unlikelihood of sufficient project funding assistance (if any at all) from the federal and state governments. (The Commission has submitted applications for federal TIGER/TIFIA grants - so-called stimulus funding - from the Federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Program . Responses to these applications currently are anticipated to be received in February 2010.)

The Commission believes a toll paid by users of the bridge is the most equitable and plausible funding solution. Commissioners did not feel it was reasonable or fair to expect users of our other river crossings to shoulder the financial burden of the capital improvements to the Scudder Falls Bridge, its nearby interchanges and the I-95 corridor. Over the years, users of the I-80 and I-78 bridges in particular have questioned the propriety of being charged a toll to cross those spans while I-95 motorists enjoyed a toll-free crossing supported, in part, by tolls collected at I-80 and I-78.

The Scudder Falls Bridge Replacement Project will provide a new, improved facility that will meet the region's transportation needs for the foreseeable future. But the costs for the multi-faceted project - a completely new, larger bridge; improved interchanges at both ends of the bridge in New Jersey and Pennsylvania; widening of I-95 in Pennsylvania; sound walls and a potential bicycle/pedestrian walkway - are substantial.

The project is, in fact, the largest single capital undertaking in the Commission's history -- $310 million. And the bridge is the most heavily used crossing among the 20 bridges in the Commission's system and vehicular crossing are expected to rise from roughly 60,000 (both directions) daily to more than 75,000 daily over the next 25 years. Tolling would have these users share in the cost burden of this significant transportation infrastructure improvement that will provide new capacity and other upgrades to meet future traffic demands of the coming decades.