Busy holiday ahead for WV Turnpike, according to the Parkway Authority

CHARLESTON  The West Virginia Parkways Authority estimates a busy Labor Day weekend on the state turnpike.

According to a release issued Tuesday by the West Virginia Department of Transportation, the state Parkways Authority says approximately four hundred and fifteen thousand transactions are expected at toll booths in the Mountain State over the four-day Labor Day holiday weekend.

A majority of those transactions, according to the release, are expected Friday, with the turnpike’s three toll booths seeing an estimated one hundred and forty thousand vehicles passing through. On Saturday, ninety thousand transactions are expected; seventy-five thousand on Sunday; and a hundred and ten thousand projected on Monday, Labor Day.

Jeff Miller, executive director of the state Parkways Authority, says some core maintenance projects on the turnpike’s roads and bridges will be put on hold during the heavier summer travel times. However, road crews are expected out on the turnpike soon paving and repairing before winter.

The tolls for passenger vehicles are $4.25 cents per plaza.  The most efficient way to move through the Turnpike’s tollbooths remains the EZ Pass. An unlimited use pass can be purchased for $26.25 a year.

Turnpike plans to begin accepting credit cards from drivers at toll plazas early next year.Toll operators will have handheld machines for drivers paying with credit card. The Parkways Authority will pick-up the processing fee for the transaction. Debit will not be available.

]Toll increases are coming as the Parkway Authority plans to up the fees by five percent.