Drivers can start buying electronic transponders for the Triangle Expressway Tuesday, October 11th. The transponders are a means of paying tolls easily. They come in time for the opening of the first section of the Triangle Expressway in mid-December. That's an extension of the Durham Freeway into Research Triangle Park. There will be two transponders to choose from. One is for North Carolina travel. That one will cost $5. The other includes states up and down the coast and is $20. David Joyner is Executive Director of the North Carolina Turnpike Authority.
David Joyner: "You can go to ncquickpass.com beginning Tuesday morning, and you can register and we'll send you a transponder in the mail, whichever one you want. And you put down whatever the cost of the transponder you select and 20 dollars into your account. And if you use a credit card, which you will have to use a credit card if you go online, we replenish your account once it goes beneath ten dollars back up to twenty dollars. If they decide they want to close their account, then that money is theirs. We don't debit that account until it's used."
Drivers who use the Expressway without transponders will be billed through the mail at a 35 percent higher rate. Joyner says he recently drove on the road for the first time.
Joyner: "You know it's a beautiful road, and I hope people enjoy it. And I really hope too that they understand the need for having to use tolls to build these terribly expensive highways. You know it's paying for the majority of the cost of the road, and that's the way it is today."