The Pennsylvania Turnpike system will soon complete its conversion to an all-electronic tolling system, eliminating the need to stop at toll booths or plazas.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is in the final phase of installing new highway-speed tolling collection points on overhead structures, known as toll gantries, east of the Reading Interchange (Exit 286) to the New Jersey line and along the entire Northeastern Extension (Interstate Highway 476). PA Turnpike will build 19 gantries in this area.

This method of collecting toll payments is known as Open Road Tolling, or ORT, where vehicles continue traveling at highway speeds while tolls are collected electronically, and charged by either E-ZPass or Toll By Plate payments.

“Open Road Tolling is the culmination of the PA Turnpike’s decade-long journey to modernize

operations and meet customer expectations for seamless, nonstop travel,” said PA Turnpike CEO Mark Compton in a May news release. “ORT is a safer, more convenient way for customers to travel and represents the future of toll collection worldwide.”

The turnpike system points to several benefits of the ORT system, including easier and more convenient travel for motorists, improved safety for employees and drivers, and a $75 million a year savings for PA Turnpike.

The conversion of the eastern division to ORT should be complete in 2025. The conversion to the ORT system for the central and western Pennsylvania turnpike system begins in 2025 and should be complete in 2027.

The conversion to an all-electronic tolling system on the PA Turnpike began in 2016, with open-road tolling the final step in the process.