By David Madden

TRENTON, N.J. (CBS) – Traffic was down in 2012 on New Jersey’s two major toll roads, but revenues were up.

Credit toll increases on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway that went into effect in January of 2012.

Tom Feeney is a spokesman for the Turnpike Authority that runs both highways and he says revenues were up about 45 percent from 2011.

“Our overall revenues were off projections by 2-100ths of one percent and our toll revenues were off projections by one tenth of one percent. So it’s hard to argue with the accuracy of the projections,” says Feeney.

In fact, were it not for Hurricane Sandy, which cost the toll roads almost $16 million, the picture would be even brighter.

The Authority approved a plan to borrow some $2 billion to fund construction work and refinance existing debt.