Ohio Turnpike tolls to increase Jan. 1
12/18/2006Tolls on the Ohio Turnpike will rise on Jan. 1 by an average of 13.5 percent for passenger vehicles and 7.8 percent for loaded trucks.
The Ohio Turnpike Commission today approved a new fare schedule under which truckers will pay more than they do now, but less than they did two years ago when the commission rolled rates back by an average of 25 percent.
That decrease was part of a Taft administration program to lure big rigs to the toll road from parallel secondary highways. Car drivers, whose rates were unaffected by the rollback, face their first toll hike in eight years.
The vote was 4 to 1, with Gordon Proctor, director of the Ohio Department of Transportation, opposing the toll increase.
The Taft administration also opposed the proposal during hearings earlier this fall, with its representative arguing that the turnpike commission could avoid the hike for at least a year by postponing capital projects and restructuring its debt.
A car traveling the turnpike s full 241-mile length will pay $10.25 instead of the current $8.95, while a Class 8 trucker who now pays $31 to travel from Indiana to Pennsylvania will pay $33.50. Class 8 includes trucks weighing between 65,001 and 80,000 pounds.
All fares now will be rounded to the nearest quarter instead of the nearest nickel, so for some trips between neighboring interchanges, passenger-car tolls will go down when the new rates take effect.
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