PORTLAND – A two-week grace period aimed at providing Maine Turnpike commuters with extra time to transition to the new E-ZPass system ended at midnight Monday. Turnpike users without E-ZPass tags were required to pay cash tolls starting Tuesday.

The grace period was designed for customers who had returned their applications for the Maine Turnpike’s commuter discount program on time, but because of a last-minute crush of applications, were not sent their E-ZPass tags in time for the Feb. 1 start.

Turnpike officials are now confident that E-ZPass tags have been shipped to all commuter program customers who signed up before the Jan. 14 deadline.

“The last shipment of tags to those who signed up before the Jan. 14 deadline went out the door on Feb. 7,” said the turnpike’s public affairs manager, Dan Paradee.

“They should have been received by the end of last week with plenty of time to install them properly,” he said.