By Laura Johnson

Toll rates on the SR 520 and Tacoma Narrows bridges are going up July 1. When rates increase, often people ask, so where does all my toll money go?

Well, the majority of each dollar goes goes toward paying for construction of the new bridges in the corridor you’re traveling. For example, on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, 71 cents out of every toll dollar goes to repaying construction debt. On the SR 520 bridge, it’s 82 cents out of every dollar that goes toward the $1.2 billion in toll money we need to build the new bridge set to open in spring 2016.

So what about the other 29 and 18 cents? Well, it’s split among a lot of different things. We have to pay our vendors that operate the toll collection equipment out on the highway and our customer service centers. There are credit card and bank fees associated with collecting the toll money, and costs to buy the passes we sell you. We also have folks at our Toll Division who make sure the tolling operations keep running smoothly – they get a couple pennies from each dollar.

If you want to see how everything’s broken down, check out these color coded dollar bills, which make it easier to see the percentages in relation to each other.

Where your Tacoma Narrows Bridge toll dollar goes

71 cents of every dollar goes to repaying construction debt.


Where your SR 520 toll dollar goes

The majority of your SR 520 toll dollar goes to paying for a new bridge.


We also looked at how much it costs other toll agencies around the country to collect their tolls. WSDOT’s costs (in green) are about average.


Now that you know where your toll money goes, it’s time for the details about the upcoming rate increases. On July 1, the Tacoma Narrows toll will go up 25 cents across the board for two-axle vehicles, with new rates of $4.50 for Good To Go! customers with a pass, $5.50 for drivers paying at toll booths and $6.50 for Pay By Mail customers. It’ll cost the average weekday commuter about $65 more a year.

Tolls on the SR 520 bridge will go up approximately 2.5 percent on July 1. The peak weekday Good To Go! pass rate will be $3.80 and the peak weekday Pay By Mail rate will be $5.40. The average weekday commuter will pay about $52 more a year.

Again, these rate increases have to happen so that we can pay back the bonds we sold to finance the building of the bridges.

The way it’s set up for the Tacoma Narrows Bridge is that there are escalating debt payments, so the toll rates have to increase to keep up.


For the SR 520 Bridge, the Transportation Commission planned to have four 2.5-percent increases over four years (2012-2015), and then a 15-percent increase in 2016. During the initial rate setting process, they chose the 15-percent increase in 2016 after the new bridge is open to drivers. No rate increases are planned after 2016 for financing purposes; however, the commission will monitor traffic and revenue data to ensure we pay back our bondholders.

Mention tolls and a lot of drivers think of waiting in line to hand over cash to an attendant in a booth. But thanks to technology there are no tollbooths on SR 520 – it is all-electronic, video tolling. Most frequent SR 520 flyers have a Good To Go! pass and account so toll paying is easier than ever.

But how do snowbirds returning from spending the winter in Arizona or other out-of-town visitors pay for tolls when they cross the SR 520 bridge? With video tolling, a camera on the bridge snaps license plate photos and mails a toll bill and processing fee to the vehicle owner. You can also choose to add your out-of-town guest’s license plate to your account while they are in town to have their tolls deducted from your Good To Go! account. Visitors can set up their own Short Term Account for their trip to Seattle. It’s that easy.

O.K., so it’s not always that easy. A twitter comment we received was how come Europe has been successfully tolling for dozens of years and we can’t seem to get it right? Well, again, it is not that simple. Since most drivers in our state are new to all-electronic tolling—we are new to it, too—there is a learning curve for everyone involved.

While technology has brought us all-electronic tolling and easier ways to pay, it has also brought us the typical system bugs and quirks of any new system. Whether it is a driver receiving a toll bill for another state’s plate or a driver unintentionally getting a 25-cent charge because the sensor couldn’t read their pass, the system, while 99.9 percent accurate, is not error free.

With 60,000 to 70,000 cars currently using the SR 520 bridge each day, there will certainly be processes that do not go right for some reason or another. These recurring bugs and one-time system glitches will happen for a percentage of transactions and customers every day this is something we expected and one of the reasons we have customer service representatives available in person or on the phone to answer questions. 

So, when snowbirds or other guest comes to town tell them to go ahead and cross the bridge but keep their change because with new tolling technology they’ll know that the bill is in the mail even if they live in another state.

Let us know your technology questions and take a look at this animation video that gives you a better idea on how our video toll system works.