ABC News New York reports, the Lincoln Tunnel’s new all-electronic toll system went into operation on schedule early yesterday morning. “The move was the last step in a $500 million project to bring modern toll collecting to all of the Port Authority’s bridges and tunnels.” The authority reckons that by eliminating stops at the tunnel’s obsolete tollbooths it will save motorists over a million gallons of fuel a year, eliminate more than 11,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually and reduce rear-end collisions.
NJ.com reports that PANYNJ engineers will now “have to plan and schedule demolition of the old toll booths and plazas without affecting traffic. That phase of [AET conversion] will be a multi-year undertaking to coordinate demolition around already planned repairs and routine maintenance work at the George Washington Bridge and the [Holland and Lincoln] tunnels, with the goal of limiting inconvenience to motorists, authority officials said.”