The Kansas Turnpike’s new Tonganoxie/Eudora interchange will open at noon on Dec. 29.

Drivers using the new Exit 212, which connects with a rebuilt Leavenworth County Road 1, will not see any turnpike toll collectors on site. Instead, the interchange will be equipped with automated payment machines, similar to ATMs at banks or self-payment machines at grocery stores.

The interchange is the turnpike’s first in Leavenworth County, and the turnpike’s first to be equipped with such machines.

Traffic entering the turnpike at the interchange will have two options: Use a lane for K-TAG, which is for customers with readers on their windshields that automatically calculate and bill them for tolls; or use a lane with an automated ticker printer.

Drivers exiting the turnpike at the interchange also will have two options: Use a dedicated lane available for K-TAG customers, or use one two lanes equipped with automated payment machines.

The payment machines will read a driver’s turnpike ticket, then inform the driver how much of a toll is owed; drivers then will pay using paper bills, coins or a payment card.

Anyone with a problem will be able to communicate with an off-site toll attendant by using a push-button connection via video and audio.

The interchange is part of an $18 million project that rebuilt a stretch of Leavenworth County Road 1.

A dozen more interchanges are scheduled to get some automated machines in 2010, including the Lecompton interchange, at the western edge of Lawrence, and the soon-to-be-rebuilt East Lawrence interchange, which cuts through the northern edge of North Lawrence.

Also slated: An automated payment machine at the turnpike’s East Topeka exit, at the “small plaza” where drivers exit onto the Oakland Expressway.