The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission has announced higher fares and E-ZPass will greet drivers Dec. 1 at its toll bridges connecting Pennsylvania to New Jersey.

Some truckers' costs will shoot up 400 percent.

The commission says the increase will help fund a 10-year, $526 million maintenance plan for the seven toll bridges and 13 free bridges the commission maintains and operates. Approved in December 2001, the toll hike had been postponed since late July while construction contracts for E-Zpass booths were rebid.

Per-axle tolls on trucks crossing the Trenton-Morrisville Bridge will quadruple from 50 cents to $2.25 for 2002 and 2003. In 2004, tolls will rise to $3.25. Per-axle costs on the New Hope-Lambertville (Route 202), I-78, Easton-Phillipsburg (Route 22), Portland-Columbia, Delaware Water Gap and I-80, and Milford-Montague bridges will more than triple from $1 to $3.25. Cash tolls for cars will double from 50 cents to $1 on four of the bridges and from $1 to $1.25 on the rest.

Northeastern Pennsylvania lawmakers wrote Gov. Mark Schweiker in October opposing the bridge increases. The letter said the legislators feared the increase would put "industries that rely on interstate commercial trucking ... at a competitive disadvantage" and, "in worst-case scenarios, layoffs and closures may occur," the Bucks County Courier Times reported.