PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Delaware River Port Authority has held the line on bridge tolls for more than 12 years, but DRPA executives aren’t sure how much longer an increase can be delayed.
For now, tolls on the four Delaware River Port Authority bridges are holding at $5, where they have been since 2011.
“We’re still not recommending a toll increase,” DRPA CEO John Hanson told KYW Newsradio. “We’re crunching the numbers. The jury is still out on that.”
Part of the 2011 toll hike resolution provided for automatic increases every two years based on the Consumer Price Index. The DRPA board, though, has always deferred action.
“That’s been in place now … for more than 10 years and we’ve never used it. So we’re deferring it to be reconsidered in the beginning of April,” Hanson said. “We’re still looking for alternatives to try and put it off. I don’t know if we’re going to be successful or not.”
He said DRPA has been able to forestall toll increases on the Ben Franklin, Walt Whitman, Betsy Ross and Commodore Barry bridges by paying down debt and financing capital projects with surplus funds.
The cost of maintaining the bridges and the PATCO line will be the major determining factor in whether to raise tolls, he added.
Hanson compared the bridges and the PATCO line to engineering marvels like the Roman aqueducts and the Taj Mahal. He said the DRPA needs to make sure it has the resources to maintain them for generations to come.