Golden Gate Bridge Toll Collection to See Dramatic Change
The move could also result in the demise of the toll plaza that has been part of the structure since it opened in 1937.
In 2000, a much ballyhooed $7 million FasTrak electronic toll system came online at the bridge’s toll plaza. At the time toll takers still worked at the span and drivers had the option of paying with cash or electronically. Because there were two functions, the FasTrak equipment was hard-wired into the toll booth structure.
But in 2013, toll takers were eliminated in a cost-cutting measure and in the passing years the FasTrak equipment has become outdated. Additionally, the cameras, lights and other FasTrak equipment has become the unintended target of vehicles crashing into the apparatus in the plaza’s narrow lanes. The state is also developing new rules for electronic toll systems that the span’s current equipment doesn’t meet.
Rather than put new equipment in the old toll plaza, bridge officials are looking to erect a gantry a few hundred feet south of the toll plaza to be placed over southbound lanes by December 2018.
“Toll technology has changed over the last 10 years,” Jennifer Mennucci, director of budget and electronic revenue at the bridge district, told bridge officials Aug. 25.
The new technology is the toll gantry, on which lasers, lights and cameras are hung to assess tolls.
“It allows all the equipment to be above the roadway and access to maintenance above the roadway so you don’t need lane closures to do maintenance,” Mennucci said. “We think it’s good customer service not to close the lanes, and it’s much safer.
“Our toll canopy is not a viable solution.”
While sophisticated, the new equipment would not be able to count passengers, keeping the three-person carpool regulations somewhat on the honor system, although enforced by the California Highway Patrol.
Officials looked around the toll plaza for the optimal gantry site and settled on an area just south of the toll plaza across from the bridge district administration building parking lot.
“It seems to be the least disruptive for our current operations,” Mennucci said. “We needed an area where the lanes are straight.”
Aesthetics are also an issue.
“We wanted to preserve the bridge’s look and the view. We don’t think this will impede the typical view line for the visitor,” she said.
Color of the gantry and design still need to be determined.
“The gantry design is going to be the controversial component of this,” said Brian Sobel of Sonoma, a member of the bridge board. “It’s the component that will be debated.”
And what of the 79-year-old toll plaza once the gantry is up and operational?
There is no proposal to demolish it, for now, though some board members pushed for its demise, saying the narrow width of the plaza lanes are a danger.
“That would be a much larger and more expensive project,” said Denis Mulligan, bridge district general manager. “It would involve a much larger public process.”
That means the art deco clock at the span will keep its home for the time being.
“The clock would stay on the toll plaza canopy,” Mulligan said.
