LAMBERTVILLE, N.J. (Hunterdon County) — The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission has completed a series of test runs for a new all-electronic tolling system at the New Hope-Lambertville (Route 202) Toll Bridge, bringing the facility one step closer to opening later this month.
Commission officials announced that testing of the bridge’s newly installed open-road cashless tolling gantry has been completed and that the system remains on schedule to begin operating before the end of June. An official opening date has not yet been announced.
The overhead steel gantry was installed in 2025 and equipped with cameras, LED vehicle illuminators and E-ZPass toll-reading technology in December. Wiring, testing and calibration of the equipment took place during the first five months of this year.
Last week, commission maintenance and engineering personnel conducted a series of test runs using vehicles of various sizes traveling beneath the gantry at different speeds and positions to verify the system’s accuracy.
Technicians are now reviewing and auditing the recorded data and images generated during the testing process.
The new facility marks the first time the commission has fully converted a former cash-collection toll plaza into an open-road all-electronic tolling system, allowing motorists to travel at highway speeds without stopping to pay a toll.
The tolling upgrade is part of a larger 22-month construction project that includes demolition of the former toll plaza, repairs and improvements to the bridge’s Pennsylvania abutment, and reconstruction and realignment of Route 202 on the Pennsylvania side of the bridge.
To accommodate the work, the bridge has operated with a single travel lane in each direction since last summer. Most of the former toll-collection lanes have already been removed, with one remaining lane continuing to process tolls through E-ZPass and Toll By Plate in the southbound, Pennsylvania-bound direction.
Once the new all-electronic tolling system begins operation, crews will remove the final remaining toll lane and begin reconstructing the northbound, New Jersey-bound travel lanes. Additional traffic shifts will be required during the final phases of the project and will be announced at a later date, officials said.
Construction is expected to continue through the first half of 2027. Upon completion, the bridge and its approaches will return to two travel lanes in each direction, and all project-related speed and size restrictions will be lifted.
