Atlantic Beach group seeks roll back of Atlantic Beach Bridge toll hikes

An Atlantic Beach group is asking the Nassau County Bridge Authority to roll back toll hikes that went into effect last year on the Atlantic Beach Bridge.

The director of the authority, however, said Thursday it has no plans to cancel the toll increases.

“The public cannot afford to endure the additional financial burden of their toll hikes,” Atlantic Beach resident Beth Garnett said Thursday. An online petition Garnett started under the auspices of a group called Atlantic Beach and Neighbors has gathered 1,411 signatures calling for the toll hike to be rescinded. Another online petition seeking greater transparency that she started has gathered 1,442 signatures.

Tolls went up on the bridge that connects Lawrence to the barrier island last year. Drivers can pay per crossing or by an annual pass. Residents of Nassau County get a discount and residents of the barrier islands get a steeper discount. Starting this year, the authority no longer gives drivers stickers for annual passes, rather, they must use EZ-Pass.

Garnett said the toll hike has been a burden on Atlantic Beach residents both directly and indirectly.

Some contractors are “charging sometimes now a fee upfront just to stop at your house, just to come to give you a quote,” she said. She said that grocery deliveries from Far Rockaway are more expensive now because the additional toll is passed onto the consumer.

Raymond Webb, executive director of the authority said Thursday that the toll increase was needed to pay for capital improvements to the bridge that spans the west end of Reynolds Channel.

“We have no complaints,” Raymond Webb, executive director of the authority said Thursday. “We implemented E-ZPass here in December of 2023. It's a wonderful thing.”

Webb said there have been some glitches with E-ZPass users getting charged. 

The 2023 toll increase raised the cost for a passenger vehicle from $2 to $3 with E-ZPass or $4 with cash. The cost per crossing for commercial vans and trucks went from $4-$8, depending on size, to $8-$16. The cost of an annual pass for residents of the barrier island went up from $130 to $162.50 and the cost of an annual pass for Nassau County residents went up from $130 to $199. The hike for nonresident annual passes went up more, from $175 to $349. 

The pandemic hit the authority's finances in 2020 as transaction volume over the bridge declined 24.5% though it rebounded in 2021, according to a Moody's Investors Service 2023 credit report. The toll increase was expected to raise revenue from $6.2 million in 2022 — a year when the authority ran a $697,955 deficit — to $10.6 million in revenue in 2023, creating a projected $1.6 million surplus, according to authority budget documents. 

The authority's 2022 capital improvement plan called for $9.2 million in improvements in 2023, with the largest portion being $5.6 million for E-ZPass installation and refurbishing the toll plaza; $5.5 million in 2024 for bulkhead replacement as well as bridge and drainage repairs; $1 million in 2025 to resurface and repair roadways; and $6.9 million in 2026 to clean and paint the bridge.