PANYNJ signing contracts for all-electronic tolling - cashless by 2012

The Port Authority of New York New Jersey (PANYNJ) is hiring help in planning the move to cashless all-electronic tolling (AET). They recently chose consulting firms for two multi-year contracts to design and plan the radical change in the way tolls are collected, and a senior officer is about to be appointed as AET project manager.

Traffic Technologies Inc (TTI) of New Windsor NY are the lead technical consultants for the move. Their contract is for five years and involves an average two full time equivalent professionals.

Jacobs Carter Burgess got the second contract which focusses more on business issues.

TTI and its principal Michael Kolb have done technical toll collection work for PANYNJ almost continuously for over 15 years under multiple contracts. They are also doing an AET feasibility study on the Atlantic City Expressway. Jacobs last year recruited a number of toll system specialists from the Vollmer/Stantec group.

In both cases there were five qualified groups competing for the work which will cost about $12m.

The PANYNJ contract documents are innocuously titled "Performance of expert professional services for various toll collection initiatives" but an attachment makes clear the commitment to AET:

"The Authority’s (existing toll collection system) is ten years old and is in need of replacement. Initially, the Authority considered an 'in-kind' system replacement. However, given the state of toll collection technologies, the Authority is investigating the feasibility of employing an all-electronic (cashless) toll collection structure for its replacement system.

"An all-electronic toll collection system would utilize E-ZPass transponders (tags) to collect tolls to the maximum extent possible along with video tolling using license plate image capture to collect tolls from customers without a functioning E-ZPass tag in an open-road environment.

"The Authority envisions that such a system would utilize a gantry or a series of gantries spanning several lanes of roadway and enabling toll collection equipment to function at normal roadway speeds, eliminating the tollbooths and traditional toll plazas in place today. The existing toll plazas would be removed once toll collection operations are transitioned to a new all-electronic tolling system." (end of quote from PANYNJ)

All the documents have the proviso that AET implementation depends on decisions on its feasibility, but the scale and depth of the commitment makes it clear that it is very likely to happen.

The documents contain a timetable which has an RFP in 2Q 2010 and selection 3Q 2010 followed by a year of design and factory testing. Installation would begin 2Q 2012 to be complete by 3Q 2012.

The new PANYNJ AET project manager's role is described here:

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/3310

America's busiest toll point at the Geo Washington Bridge

PANYNJ runs the busiest single tolling point in the US at Fort Lee New Jersey with 30 toll lanes tolling an average 147k vehicles/day going eastbound onto the George Washington Bridge. Westbound traffic is untolled.

Total toll transactions are 375k/day at all six PANYNJ toll crossings - three on the Hudson River forming the major links northern New Jersey to Manhattan and the other three onto Staten Island NY. Revenues are over $700m/year making it similar in size to revenues on the New Jersey turnpike, the Illinois Tollway system and the New York State Thruway, and only significantly behind the #1 Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA) NYC which does 750k tolls/day and about $1500m/year in revenues.

Triborough B&TA has announced an intention to launch a study of AET later this year.

AET in use or planned many places

AET with video tolls for non-transponder users was pioneered in north America by 407ETR in Toronto Canada in 1997 using technology from then Hughes now Raytheon.

AET is in use on the Dallas North Tollway in Texas at the southernmost plaza and cash collection will have ceased throughout the NTTA's Dallas network by 2010.

AET is in use on the Reversible Express Lanes in Tampa FL and on State Highway 121 (TX121) north of Dallas and on a small tollroad in Tyler TX.

The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority has one AET toll plaza on 183A Toll Road northwest of Austin and plans to abandon cash at its other mainline toll plaza later this year.

Mami Dade Expressway Authority is committed to going cashless on its four tollroads.

New cashless TRs

Maryland's Inter County Connector tollroad through Montgomery County now in construction will be AET, as will all tollroads in North Carolina.

Australians have been early implementers of AET on Melbourne City Link and several Sydney tollroads. Santiago Chile has three AET tollroads and the Trans Israel Highway uses AET.

TOLLROADSnews 2008-05-07