Four snowstorms and a hurricane kept drivers off the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway this year and led the toll highways to report revenue through October fell $47.1 million below forecasts.
The New Jersey Turnpike Authority collected $943 million in revenue in the first 10 months of 2011, about 5 percent less than its target of $990 million. The October snowstorm that blanketed much of the U.S. Northeast cost $1 million in New Jersey toll revenue. Unemployment and high gasoline prices also deterred motorists, the authority said in a report today.
“The situation is not dire, we have enough money to meet all of our obligations," said Transportation Commissioner James Simpson, chairman of the Turnpike Authority’s board, at a meeting in Woodbridge. ‘‘If this carries itself out for the next four or five years it gets to be a lot of money.”
