Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

It will be a moment some Rhode Islanders say should have arrived years ago, as E-ZPass was establishing itself as an efficient and popular toll collection system on highways and bridges across the Northeast.

"Frankly, some of them were a little antsy that we hadn't moved this way," Darlington said. But ever since the authority announced E-ZPass was on the way, and after the details were worked out, "we've had an overwhelming positive response."

Now, said Darlington, after all of the hard work the authority staff has put into making E-ZPass a reality, "it feels like the end of a pregnancy."

About five years ago, people criticized Rhode Island for not joining the E-ZPass system, which stretches from Maine to Virginia. But authority officials said the cost of installing E-ZPass was not cost-effective. Last year, however, the authority announced it would go with E-ZPass at the Pell Bridge partly because of the growing expense of maintaining the aging token system.

Today, one E-ZPass lane will open in each direction on the span that connects Jamestown and Newport. Cash and tokens will still be collected in the other lanes. More lanes will open every few days after that, until five of the six lanes in each direction are equipped to accept E-ZPass (the sixth lane is for oversize loads). Some lanes will be reserved only for E-ZPass holders. The cash lanes will accept EZ-Pass E-ZPass, but in January, tokens will be phased out.

Darlington said that authority staff will be standing by at the E-ZPass lanes to help the transition go smoothly." Anyone who accidentally winds up in the E-ZPass lane or discovers their transponder isn't working correctly, "there will be someone there to rescue them" and to "keep traffic moving," Darlington said.

There are several ways to sign up for E-ZPass. Applications are available in the office adjacent to the toll plaza in Jamestown from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. To subscribe by telephone, call (877) 743-9727 (877-RI-EZPASS). To apply online, go to www.ritba.org.

The cash toll at the bridge will remain $2. Those who live in Rhode Island and purchase a transponder from the authority will be charged 83 cents per crossing, equal to the current price of a token when 25 are purchased. Those who live outside Rhode Island but who cross the bridge more than 30 times a month will pay 91 cents per crossing, the rate now available with the purchase of 10 tokens.

Those who use a transponder acquired out of state will be charged a slightly discounted toll of $1.75.

Motorists will be able to buy a first transponder for $10 and a second for $15. A third or a fourth -- the maximum -- will each cost $20.95. Rhode Island residents who have out-of-state transponders and want a Rhode Island one to get the deepest bridge discounts will have the $10 charge for the transponder added to their account as a credit.

To use E-ZPass, motorists will have to deposit $25 into an account, and they will have to replenish the balance each time it falls to $10.

The transponders attach to a car's windshield and contain an electronic chip that holds information on the owner's account. Each time the transponder passes through a toll facility that uses E-ZPass, the information is read and the account is debited.