Ohio Turnpike ready to start upgrade work thanks to $236M in toll collections

1/3/2011

The Ohio Turnpike has closed out a record year at its tollbooths, which collected $236 million from motorists in 2010.

The Plain Dealer newspaper of Cleveland reports the new high for toll revenue was a result of more traffic than expected and toll increases that took effect in the fall of 2009.

The money will help the Turnpike Commission undertake an estimated $74 million in projects during 2011 to improve service plazas and portions of road.

Near Sandusky, a five-mile stretch of original pavement — put down when Dwight Eisenhower was president — will be replaced. A 2009 analysis done for the turnpike identified that section of road as being in particularly bad shape.