Drivers who use the new Exit 125 ramp from the Garden State Parkway south to Sayreville better bring their E-ZPass or risk a fine, after officials finalized a cashless toll plan.

New Jersey Turnpike Authority board members voted last week to put a $1.50 toll on the new exit and ban cash payment. Drivers paying with cash will have to use the nearby Raritan Toll Plaza and double back, or receive a violation notice if they use the new Exit 125.

"The board approved the new toll. There was no change in the plan to make the new ramp E-ZPass only," said Thomas Feeney, a Turnpike Authority spokesman.

Despite all the publicity over the cashless toll plaza, Feeney said only three people formally objected to that plan.

During a public hearing in April about the proposal to put tolls on the new exit, one person spoke, criticizing the lack of a cash option and two written comments against the cash less toll plaza were received.

"There was a fair amount of media coverage of the plan over the past few months. The hearing was advertised in 11 newspapers and on the NJTA website," he said. "With all of that notice, we only received only three comments."

More than 80 percent of Parkway drivers use E-ZPass to pay tolls and adding an exact change coin machine lane to the toll plaza would have added $1 million to the cost of the Exit 125 project, Turnpike Authority officials said.

Signs will be posted warning drivers that cash isn't accepted at the new exit, officials said.

"The small percentage of Parkway drivers who don't already use E-ZPass will not be inconvenienced at all," Feeney said. "They'll be able to use the exact same exit they use today (at the Raritan Toll Plaza) and pay the exact same toll."

The toll plaza location off the Parkway lacked enough land to include cash and exact change lanes. Plans call for opening the new Exit 125 from the Parkway south on June 30 and the entire $73 million project, which includes reworking local roads around the interchange, is expected to be completed in October 2019.

Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

