Kentucky Adding Tolls, Joins E-ZPass System

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Transport Topics / November 17, 2015

Kentucky hasn’t had a tolled bridge in 69 years, but that will change in a big way in 2016.

The Bluegrass State is less than a year from the completion of the $2.3 billion Ohio River Bridges project that spans three bridges, each of which will be electronically tolled via E-ZPass.

The Kentucky Public Transportation Infrastructure Authority is the financing arm of the state’s large transportation projects. KPTIA’s application for membership in E-ZPass was approved this month, and the tolling system will be called RiverLink.

The Ohio River Bridges project includes a new bridge that will handle six northbound lanes of Interstate 65, a revamped Kennedy Bridge which will carry six lanes of I-65 southbound and a bridge connecting Prospect, Kentucky, and Utica, Indiana.

RiverLink spokeswoman Mindy Peterson said the latter bridge has been needed for decades. Drivers currently wanting to make that crossing need to go 8 miles out of their way into downtown Louisville.

The current Kennedy Bridge carries just seven lanes of traffic, four northbound and three southbound, so I-65’s capacity will nearly double to 12 lanes.

Heavy trucks will likely pay $10 with an E-ZPass transponder, and non-commuter passenger cars will pay $2 per toll once either the I-265 bridge or the revamped Kennedy bridges opens. Rates for non-E-ZPass users have not yet been set.

Both are expected to be ready by next October or November, while the new I-65 bridge is expected to open by the end of next month. Construction began on both new bridges in July 2013.

“It’s a good thing for those drivers that have E-ZPass,” Kentucky Motor Transport Association President Jamie Fiepke said. “It should simplify the process for them.”

The Ohio River Bridges project also is designed to simplify driving in metropolitan Louisville by untangling the infamous “Spaghetti Junction,” where I-64, I-65 and I-71 come together at the Kennedy interchange, which opened during the 1960s.

“That interchange was a mess,” Fiepke said. “It was on the top 10 of ATRI’s list of bottlenecks.”

Kentucky will be the 16th state using E-ZPass, joining Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia and West Virginia.

Separately, 42.6 miles of western Kentucky’s Pennyrile Parkway was designated as I-69 on Nov. 16 by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx and Federal Highway Administrator Gregory Nadeau. The upgrade project cost $110 million, nearly all of it paid for with federal funding.

“This route is a key segment of one of the nation’s most economically needed freight corridors,” said Nadeau, who joined Foxx at a ceremony in Madisonville. “Improving its ability to handle the predicted increase in traffic will make a big difference to those living in and traveling throughout the region.”

Kentucky’s transportation cabinet predicts that use of the highway will nearly triple to 41,000 drivers a day by 2035.