West Virginia Turnpike tolls increasing

KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) – ”Nothing has changed since I was a kid. The roads are worse,” Tina Martin, a traveler on the West Virginia Turnpike, said.

Martin grew up using the West Virginia Turnpike and paying tolls, but she was surprised to hear the price was raising by a quarter at each toll plaza starting New Year’s Day.

“Matter of fact, I forgot when we were coming back down about the tolls until I saw, you know. I said ‘oh my God, they’re still, still doing this now.’ I didn’t know it was going up to $4.50.”

Martin lives in Roanoke, Virginia, now and said her grandchildren asked her why they charged people to go through the turnpike.

“Well, honey, let me tell you a story about that. When I was a little girl, they built this turnpike and I said the tolls that they took were supposedly to pay for the road,” Martin said.

She said her grandchildren questioning the tolls has her doing the same after all these years.

“If a child understands that every time we come through here and she says every single car is getting $4.25, that’s a lot of money.”

State officials said they’d like to add credit card readers at toll plazas in 2025 and Martin said it was an option she almost needed on New Year’s Eve.

“We were just lucky that I had a few you know had some dollars coming down the road because usually I just have cards. I forgot about the tolls so I think that’s a good idea.”

Unlike Martin, some travelers didn’t seem bothered by the increase because they use an E-Z pass to travel through multiple states, but you’ll need an extra quarter for each toll if you’re traveling next year.

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