News Release

NEW HOPE, PA. – Work on converting the New Hope-Lambertville (Route 202) Toll Bridge to a highway-speed open-road toll collection facility has reached a significant construction milestone, the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) announced today.

The project has now advanced to the point where technicians can test and calibrate high-resolution license-plate-image cameras and E-ZPass-reading equipment recently mounted on the location’s newly installed toll gantry.

The video cameras and E-ZPass equipment are attached to a 30,000-pound steel monotube that was hoisted atop concrete towers along the bridge’s Pennsylvania approach in early December. A video of the monotube’s overnight installation process is available on the Commission’s YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tIX8KhLNYQ.

Testing and calibrating of the installed all-electronic tolling (AET) equipment will now proceed over the next three months. If all goes as planned, open-road AET collections could begin as early as late May at the fully operational toll gantry.

The testing and calibrating are the latest parts of a project that is converting the bridge’s former southbound cash-collection toll plaza to highway-speed open-road tolling involving E-ZPass and TOLL BY PLATE billing. The project also involves repairs and improvements to the bridge’s Pennsylvania abutment.

The project marks the first time that a former DRJTBC cash-collection toll plaza is getting replaced with an open-road all-electronic tolling (AET) gantry. The undertaking is serving as a prototype for subsequent open-road tolling conversions of six other DRJTBC bridges that once handled cash transactions.

Like many other toll agencies across the country and around the globe, the Commission has stopped accepting cash toll payments. Cashless AET collections – currently consisting of E-ZPass with lower toll rates and TOLL BY PLATE with higher toll rates – are safer, better for the environment, and less expensive to collect than manual in-lane cash transactions.

Work on the New Hope-Lambertville Toll Bridge All Electronic Tolling Conversion and Pennsylvania Abutment Backwall Replacement Project began in June 2025 with equipment staging, lane shifts, and the removal of three old toll collection lanes.

In the southbound tolled direction, vehicles or trailers going from New Jersey to Pennsylvania have been limited to a 10-foot maximum width. In the northbound non-toll direction, vehicles or trailers going from Pennsylvania to New Jersey are limited to an 11-foot maximum width. The speed limit in the active work zone is reduced to 25 miles per hour.

Travel restrictions are expected to moderate once the completed open-road tolling gantry can be opened to live traffic. (The Commission does not collect tolls in the New Jersey-bound direction.)