Findlay Connector to go cashless for drivers next month

Motorists will find fewer toll stations but higher charges

Drivers won’t need cash, but that doesn’t mean it will cost less to use the Findlay Connector near Pittsburgh International Airport when it goes cashless next month. In fact, it will cost more.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike, which operates the toll road, is expanding cashless tolling to Findlay and part of the Northeastern Extension in Lackawanna County. The system allows motorists to pay tolls either through EZPass or by mail after the turnpike takes photos — called Toll by Plate — of their license plates as they pass through the toll area.

Bills can be sent as often as twice a month, spokesman Carl DeFebo said, but motorists who are regular turnpike users usually convert to the E-ZPass system that is linked to a credit card.

The turnpike will open the system April 29 on the connector, the 6-mile segment of the Southern Beltway from Interstate 376 near the airport to Route 22 in northern Washington County, and at Clarks Summit and Keyser Avenue on the turnpike’s Northeastern Extension. The new locations follow cashless tolls that began on the Delaware River Bridge in 2016 and on the Beaver Valley Expressway last spring.

In a news release, turnpike CEO Mark Compton said the agency is introducing the system slowly in a variety of areas to test how well it works and whether customers accept it.

“Agencies across the country are introducing cashless systems, and we owe it to customers to