Proposal To Pay For New Scudder Falls Bridge With Tolls Picks Up Speed
By Paul Kurtz
EWING Twp., NJ (CBS) -- A proposal to replace an aging bridge connecting Bucks and Mercer Counties with a toll bridge has reached the public hearing phase.
It begins this evening in Ewing Township.
The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission is holding six public hearings this summer on a plan to build a new Scudder Falls Bridge.
At age 55, the existing span carrying I-95 traffic is considered functionally obsolete. But it is also free, so Bridge Commission Executive Director Joe Resta understands there will be some public grumbling about the new tolls that will be needed to pay for the 334 million project.
"Dollar and a quarter for passenger vehicles with EZ-Pass, two dollars and sixty cents for a toll by plate toll for a passenger vehicle. Toll by plate is much more expensive to process."
The tolls would go in place when the first span of the new bridge opens in 2019.
Hearing number two is scheduled for Thursday evening in Lower Makefield.
A final vote on the project is expected in late September.
