Over the decades, toll rates for the Sunshine Skyway Bridge have gone up and down like rolling storm waves on Tampa Bay. The current crossing cost for a two-axle vehicle is $1.75, the same toll that was in place when the first cars rolled across the two-lane concrete Skyway when it opened in September 1954.
Beginning April 12, motorists won’t be able to use cash or coins, an idea that would have been unthinkable in 1954, or any time in the era of human toll-takers and plastic coin-catching baskets. The Florida Department of Transportation is turning the Skyway into an entirely cashless bridge.
According to a statement from FDOT, the use of SunPass, or other accepted electronic transponders including E-Pass, E-ZPass and Peach Pass “is safer and more efficient … allowing drivers to keep a steady pace, and eliminates the need to stop and pay for tolls.” Vehicles without electronic transponders will be subject to toll-by-plate billing.
Tolls, the organization said, generate more than $28 million annually; the funds are used for bridge infrastructure and structural protection.
SunPass, which is owned by FDOT, says customers save an average of 25% compared to cash or toll-by-plate billing (SunPass bills approximately $1.16 for each crossing).
The cashless tolls also apply to those wishing to access the fishing piers on the north or south sides of the bridge, and recreational areas.
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The four-lane Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge was dedicated in 1987. It replaced a two-lane southbound span that collapsed when a freighter struck it during a violent storm in May, 1980.
The original span, which was then dedicated to northbound traffic, was closed when the 1987 replacement bridge opened.
It was demolished, along with the remainder of the damaged ’71 span, in 1992. The northern and southern fishing piers were created from sections of the original bridge lanes.
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