The tolls are subject to passage by the commission's board of directors meeting in September.
EWING -- The cost of crossing the new Scudders Falls Bridge when it opens in three years will be anywhere from 75 cents to $2.60, the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission announced Monday.
The tolls on the new bridge - set to begin in 2019 with the first new span is operable - will vary depending on the cashless system the driver uses, the DRJTBC said.
A passenger vehicle using E-ZPass will be cost $1.25, but a driver without E-ZPass will get a bill for $2.60 in the mail under toll-by-plate system.
And commuters who make at least 16 tolled trips per month using a commission-affiliated E-ZPass tag will pay .75 cents per trip, the DRJTBC said.
"The commission directed staff to tamp down the toll rates for this new bridge as much as possible," Joseph J. Resta, the commission's executive director, said in a statement.
"The $1.25 base E-ZPass toll and 75-cent E-ZPass commuter-discount toll are in keeping with this goal, especially given the scope and complexity of the upcoming bridge replacement project," Resta said.
The tolls are subject to passage by the commission's board of directors meeting in September, following public meetings this summer.
The tolls will be charged for southbound traffic on the new bridge, which carries Interstate 95 from Mercer County to Bucks Cuunty, Pa.
The commission has said the bridge will use an electronic, cashless system that scans E-ZPass tag readers or license plates with high-resolution cameras.
2 toll increases proposed for Del. River bridges
In January, crews began prep work on the the $328 million project by clearing brush and trees on Pennsylvania side to make way for noise-reducing walls.
Similar work is expected to get underway after Oct. 1 on the New Jersey side near the bridge, its Interstate-95 New approach and the Route 29 interchange.
The bridge replacement project involves a heavily commuted 4.4-mile portion of I-95. The existing span, which opened in 1961, was rated "functionally obsolete."
The project involves:
- Replacing the existing four-lane bridge with a twin span carrying six lanes of through-traffic and three auxiliary lanes
- Overhauling the accident-prone Route 29/175 interchange on the New Jersey side
- Reconfiguring the New Hope-Yardley/Taylorsville Road interchange in Lower Makefield, Pa.
- Making drainage upgrades and other improvements along the approach highway between the Route 29/175 interchange and Bear Tavern Road
- Widening of the Pennsylvania I-95 approach between the Route 332 exit and the bridge by adding another lane and full shoulders in each direction
- Providing a bicycle and pedestrian walkway alongside the main river bridge
- Constructing full inside and outside shoulders on both replacement bridge spans
- Constructing noise-abatement walls along the roads leading to and from the bridge
- Installing an all-electronic "cashless" toll system
Full construction is expected to get underway in early 2017 and will take up to four years to complete.
More precise start and end dates will be determined after the final design work is completed later this year, the DRJTBC has said.
The next public meetings in the Mercer County area about the project and proposed tolls are:
- July 19, West Trenton Volunteer Fire Company, 40 Upper Ferry Rd., West Trenton (Ewing), NJ. Informational project open house at 4:30 p.m.; toll hearing 6 p.m.
- July 21, 2016, William Penn Middle School, 1524 Derbyshire Rd., Yardley, Pa. Informational project open house 4:30 p.m.; toll hearing 6 p.m.
More information about the tolls can be found on the DRJTBC website.
Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook.