High-speed E-ZPass preview next week

May 16, 2006


High-speed E-ZPass preview next week
Woodbury toll plaza first in line

By Judy Rife
Times Herald-Record
jrife@th-record.com
Central Valley - The public will get a peek next week at the New York State Thruway Authority's plan to introduce highway speed E-ZPass at the Woodbury Toll Plaza.

"We think this will not only solve the problem of congestion at the toll plaza but also improve the mobility of the interchange and the air quality in the area," said Ramesh Mehta, director of the Thruway's New York division.

In harnessing technology already in place on other toll roads, the Thruway is attempting to boost customer service as well. Upwards of 60 percent of the 45,000 vehicles that use the Woodbury Toll Plaza on the average weekday are equipped with E-ZPass.

The $50 million project, the first of its kind on the 541-mile toll road, will be the subject of an open house from 6 to 8 p.m. May 23 at the Central Valley Elementary School. The school is on Route 32 opposite Woodbury Common Premium Outlets.

The open house is a come-and-go affair without formal presentations. Thruway staff will be available to discuss project diagrams and renderings on an individual basis.

Similar projects will be rolled out at Yonkers and other Thruway toll plazas over the next five years. The changes, to higher speed and highway speed E-ZPass, are part of the capital plan adopted in conjunction with last year's toll hike.

"If it will move traffic through the area quicker, I'm for it,'' said Woodbury Town Supervisor John Burke. "The pollution here, in the summer, on Fridays, on Sundays, is horrible."

David Church, Orange County's planning commissioner, said the county is "fully supportive" of the project and expects it to complement the work of the Southeastern Orange County Task Force in redesigning the intersections of Routes 32, 6 and 17 with the Thruway at the Harriman Toll Plaza.

Mehta said the project will be done in two phases and completed in 2009. The first phase will modify the entrance and exit ramps at Woodbury and Harriman where traffic now routinely backs up for miles on Friday and Sunday nights.

The modifications are designed to ease that congestion and to eliminate potential conflict between entering and exiting vehicles and through traffic, which will no longer have to slow at the toll booths.

The second phase will be the installation of the overhead equipment that will capture E-ZPass signals at