Get Your Sunpass, Turnpike Toll Plazas Going Cashless

MIAMI (CBS4) -- If you drive on the Florida Turnpike and other major South Florida expressways and still don't use a Sunpass yet, you should consider getting one and quick. 

Starting Feb. 19th, motorists traveling through toll plazas on the Homestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike will no longer be able to pay those tolls with cash. Everyone has to use a Sunpass and if you don't, you'll get a bill with an added service charge of $2.50.

 Turnpike officials are already working on closing all 37 toll plazas on the 47-mile Homestead Extension that runs between Florida City and Miramar.

Motorists traveling on the extension during the Presidents' Day weekend will encounter a mixture of cash booths and electronic toll collection as workers convert four mainline toll plazas and 33 ramp plazas to cashless SunPass lanes over a 48-hour period.

The cashless billing is done under a system called Toll-by-Plate in which cameras snap pictures of tags as the vehicles drive through.

The change is part of a broader strategy by Florida's Turnpike Enterprise and the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority to have all major South Florida toll roads become cashless to speed traffic and improve road safety.

Cashless toll roads in South Florida already include the Gratigny Parkway, a 5.4-mile expressway running from Interstate 75 to two miles short of I-95, the Don Shula expressway, and the Snapper Creek expressway.

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