STATE NEWS
OKLAHOMA CITY – Turnpike tolls for cash customers will increase on July 15 by an average of 2.5%.
The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority voted Tuesday to raise the rates again; the other price hikes occurred in March 2017 and January 2018.
The toll increases will vary depending on the routes a motorist drives. “The tolls are on our website at www.pikepass.com,” said Jack Damrill, the OTA’s communications director.
Tolls will not increase for PikePass customers, Damrill said. “Seventy-eight percent of our customers will be unaffected by this.” PikePass customers pay lower tolls than cash customers, and the tolls are deducted automatically from a prepaid account.
The national average cost for a passenger vehicle traveling on a turnpike is 20 cents per mile, compared to 7 cents a mile in Oklahoma, Damrill said. For heavy trucks, the national average cost per turnpike mile is 73 cents, compared to 22 cents in Oklahoma, Damrill said.
State Transportation Secretary Tim Gatz said the latest price hike is the third and final phase of an estimated 17% increase in tolls to underwrite the “Driving Forward” capital improvements program. Announced four years ago, Driving Forward features bond-issue projects on six toll roads.
Those include rebuilding the H.E. Bailey for eight miles, from mile post 107 (the Newcastle exit) to mile post 99 (near the SH-9 spur to Norman). It also involved relocating the Chickasha toll plaza south of its original site; the new plaza opened in February 2018.
The initial price tag for Driving Forward was $892 million, but the cost grew to $1.1 billion because right-of-way acquisition cost more than expected, Damrill said.