July 1 is the date.
A decade of planning and construction will lead to the start of cashless tolling on the Kansas Turnpike just after midnight July 1.
Turnpike Authority CEO Steve Hewitt says this will make traveling smoother and safer, through the use of gantries already installed for billing purposes along the highway and the upcoming removal of tollbooths from terminal to terminal, including the gates at Emporia (mile marker 127) and Admire (mile marker 147). This also means a significant shift online for payments and other information.
Following a change in the rate schedule this past January, Hewitt says the Turnpike will have the lowest per-mile rate of any cashless system across the country and KTAG customers will have significant savings versus non-KTAG users.
The tollbooth work will also include lane reconfiguration so highway entry and exit will be more seamless, although Hewitt has said billing will take place near those intersections — not at them.
Hewitt says this is the biggest change for Turnpike customers since 1956. More information about the change to cashless is online at driveks.com and ksturnpike.com.
