The Townsends Inlet Bridge connects Sea Isle City and Avalon.
About 90 percent of the drivers currently use E-ZPass to cross the five toll bridges connecting the Cape May County beach communities along the scenic Ocean Drive.
Don’t be surprised if the remaining 10 percent who still pay with cash and coins switch over to E-ZPass next year.
The Cape May County Bridge Commission, the agency that operates the five spans, is planning to implement an all-electronic toll system starting in 2025, which means cash and coins will no longer be accepted as payment then.
Kevin Lare, the bridge commission’s executive director, said the agency is shooting for the first quarter of 2025 to go live for the cashless toll system, but has not yet set the date.
“It’s going to happen. It’s just a question of when,” Lare said in an interview.
He added that the commission would prefer to implement electronic tolls early in the year to give it “some breathing room” to work out any possible kinks before the start of the busy summer tourism season.
The commission operates the Ocean City-Longport Bridge, the Townsends Inlet Bridge, the Corsons Inlet Bridge, the Middle Thorofare Bridge and the Grassy Sound Bridge along the Ocean Drive coastal route.
In 2018, the commission implemented E-ZPass on all five bridges to give drivers the convenience of paying their tolls electronically, saving them from the hassles of fumbling for cash and coins.
At the same time, motorists were still given the option of paying with cash. They may also pay using discount tickets to save money on the toll.
The bridge commission stopped selling the discount tickets in 2018, but there is no expiration date on them and they are still valid if any drivers still have them. When the tickets were still sold, they cost $1.20, compared to the current toll of $2.50, making them popular with local commuters.
Lare said the commission will develop a plan to buy back any remaining discount tickets as part of the switch to all-electronic tolls. He doesn’t know how many are still out there, but estimated it is only a small number.
“We get so few of them anymore,” he said.
Traffic passes through the toll plaza on the Townsends Inlet Bridge.The Cape May County Bridge Commission is joining a growing trend among highway and bridge agencies to switch to all-electronic toll systems.
The Atlantic City Expressway is preparing to have a cashless system in place in 2025. The South Jersey Transportation Authority, the expressway’s operating agency, has said it is looking to start all-electronic tolls by Memorial Day weekend 2025.
The Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike have also discussed converting to all-electronic tolls, but have not yet announced the timetable.
Drivers who already have E-ZPass will see no change to cross the Cape May County toll bridges when the cashless system is ready.
For drivers who don’t, a photo will be taken of their license plate by the E-ZPass cameras and an invoice for the toll will be sent to the registered owner.
“With the invoice comes the expectation to pay,” Lare said.
Lare stressed that the bridge commission doesn’t want to make it “punitive” for drivers who don’t have E-ZPass. They will be given 30 days to pay the normal toll, but an administrative charge would be tacked on if they are late, he said.
Currently, there is a $50 E-ZPass administrative fee for drivers who fail to pay their toll on highways and bridges in New Jersey.
The toll to cross the five Cape May County bridges is $2.50. In 2022, the bridge commission approved a three-stage toll increase to generate more revenue to maintain its network of aging bridges. All of the bridges except for the modern Ocean City-Longport Bridge date to the 1930s or 1940s.
Tolls increased by 50 cents in 2022 and 50 cents in 2023. They were supposed to go up another 50 cents in 2024, but the commission decided not to implement the toll hike this year as a way to promote tourism at the shore. The bridge commission has not yet announced whether it will implement a 50-cent toll increase in 2025.
The Townsends Inlet Bridge on the Avalon side looking toward Sea Isle.The five bridges operated by the commission hug the coast along the scenic Ocean Drive between Ocean City and Cape May and are a popular summer route for shore-bound tourists.
In 2023, the five bridges generated $4.9 million in toll revenue and handled total traffic of nearly 2.1 million vehicles.
When the all-electronic system is in place, there will not be a need for the 35 part-time toll collectors who currently staff the bridges.
Lare explained that efforts will be made to redeploy as many toll collectors as possible to serve as bridge tenders, the employees who open the drawbridges to let boat traffic to pass underneath.
“We have a lot of good employees,” Lare said.
The Townsends Inlet, Corsons Inlet, Grassy Sound and Middle Thorofare bridges are all old-fashioned drawbridges that must be opened for boat traffic. Lare said bridge tenders are needed on a round-the-clock basis to comply with U.S. Coast Guard regulations for boat traffic.
