Newport Pell Bridge
The Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge in Newport, Rhode Island, United States, a suspension bridge that connects Newport and Jamestown, crossing the Narragansett Bay. It was built in 1969 and is featured on the reverse of the Rhode Island quarter. CC-BY-SA-3.0/Matt H. Wade at Wikipedia Matt H. Wade - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:UpstateNYer Creative Commons: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Credit: CC-BY-SA-3.0/Matt H. Wade at Wikipedia / Matt H. Wade

The Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority (RITBA) today announced that due to reduced overnight traffic due to the effects of COVID-19, the toll booth cash collections on the Newport Pell Bridge going eastbound will temporarily be suspended from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m., effective Saturday, April 11th, until further notice.

This change follows the same change made for the westbound lanes on March 26th. 

The eastbound toll booth (towards Newport) will be open for cash collections during the day from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. However, from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m., RITBA will close the toll booths and send all traffic through the open road tolling (ORT) lane. The tolls will be collected utilizing the existing open road tolling (ORT) technology. This technology reads E-ZPass transponders for tolling. If a vehicle does not have a transponder, a photograph of the vehicle’s license plate will be taken, and a bill will be mailed to the address of the registered owner of the vehicle. The billed toll amount will be the same as if the vehicle were paying at the toll booth with cash or credit card. This temporary eastbound toll booths’ closure is in addition to the westbound toll booths’ closure, which will now also be from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. RITBA is redeploying the toll booth employees to other areas of RITBA to maintain timely and effective operations.

The tolls can be paid via mail, at the dropbox located at the Jamestown office, online at www.ezpassritba.com, or over the phone Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 1-877-743-9727. RITBA is encouraging customers to sign up for E-ZPass and utilize the online tools available to manage their accounts and pay for tolls, as call volume is expected to increase as a result of these changes. RITBA is asking its existing customers to log in to their accounts and update all vehicle, address, and credit card information to avoid unpaid tolls. 

The temporary closure of the eastbound toll booths from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. will necessitate the closure of the Conanicus Avenue entrance ramp to the eastbound lanes of the toll plaza. Local traffic will be required to access the bridge via North Road and Route 138. (See attached diagram for detour routes).