Legislation to encourage motorists to keep their speeds in check in work zones and on roadways patrolled by state police is on its way to Gov. Tom Wolf's desk for enactment.

The Senate on Tuesday voted 47-1 to pass a bill that permits automated speed enforcement cameras in work zones on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, interstates, and other "federal aid" highways such as Routes 22/322 or 11/15 in the midstate in a five-year pilot project.

It also gives state police another speed enforcement tool to use called LIDAR, which is a detection system that uses light from a crosshairs-type gun sight that can select a specific target in a group of vehicles.

Gov. Tom Wolf is expected to sign the measure into law and the work zone cameras could begin being put into use 120 days after its enactment.

The legislation allows for tickets to be issued in active work zones to owners of vehicles exceeding the posted speed limit by 11 miles per hour or more. If the tickets are paid, they will not reflect on the vehicle owners' driving record.

A driver's first offense in any given 12-month period would generate a warning. A second offense would generate a fine of $75, and subsequent offenses would carry fines of $150.

Revenues from the fines will be divided among the state police (45 percent), the state's Motor License Fund (40 percent) for allocation by the General Assembly for transportation and transit projects; and 15 percent to the state Department of Transportation and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission for other work zone safety initiatives.

The bill has undergone several changes since Sen. David Argall, R-Schuylkill County, who along with Sen. Judy Schwank, D-Berks County, first proposed it several years ago.

Schwank shared that she and Argall met with a PennDOT engineer that took place on Interstate 78, a highway that is scene of many crashes, about ways to make the work zones safer for construction crews. From that meeting, the senators learned about a program in Maryland that used work zone cameras on interstate highway to warn drivers to slow down.

Critics of the proposal see it as simply a revenue-raising tool but Schwank dismissed that notion in her comments on the Senate floor.

"It's about making sure that not only do our highway workers, our construction workers get home that night but you as a motorist get home safely as well," she said.

Senate Transportation Committee Chairman John Rafferty, R-Montgomery County, added, "We know day in, day out, there's men and women standing on our highways working to make the highways safer and we're trying to make their work environment safer by allowing these cameras in work zone to catch those who decide the 40 miles an hour isn't what they want to do. They want to do 80 or 100."