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Biz Around the StateNew Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway drivers could continue seeing midweek bargain prices at rest-area pumps—and the resulting long lines—for years.

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which manages both highways, has a contract with the gas stations that dictates that prices at the pump can only be changed on Friday mornings. And those contracts won’t expire anytime soon—the Authority’s pact with Sunoco ends in 2017 while its agreement with LUKOIL runs until 2011, says Joe Orlando, Authority spokesman.

And the Authority will likely hold firm if the gas companies

seek new contract terms allowing prices to change more than once a week.

“We’re not going to voluntarily renegotiate it,” Orlando says. “We also would not be very receptive if they wanted to renegotiate it. If it’s left to their own devices, gas companies are going to charge the most they possibly can. In our case now, we have control over [the price of gas] contractually.”

Drivers have been flocking to Turnpike and Parkway pumps before the Friday increases, considering the highways’ prices a relative bargain compared to gas stations that can raise prices on a daily basis.

“We think this works out well for the drivers,” says Orlando. “People are paying [tolls] to drive on the road—we try to give them a little benefit for gas prices that are normally competitive.”

Under the Authority’s contract, prices are set each week based on the results of a survey of 100 gas stations around the state, Orlando says. Lundberg Survey Inc., a California-based independent market research company that focuses on U.S. petroleum marketing, releases the results of their surveys Wednesday afternoons, two days before the scheduled price change on Turnpike Authority highways. The Authority’s contract dictates that 3 cents must be added to the average price of that survey, Orlando says.

Sharon Gordon, spokeswoman for the South Jersey Transportation Authority, says its agreement with gas stations is far less limited than on New Jersey toll roads. “Other than safety to the public, we have nothing to do with their operations,” Gordon says. Any changes in the price of gas would be left up to the gas companies themselves, she says.