Egis say their all-electronic tolling on Golden Ears Bridge helping Olympic Games traffic

Egis say in a statement today that their all-electronic tolling (AET) - they call it "free-flow tolling" - on the Golden Ears Bridge in the Vancouver metro area has worked smoothly through increased Olympic Games traffic so far. They call it "a touch of French expertise around the Olympic Games."

The bridge opened June 16 2009 and provides a new high standard crossing of the Fraser River in a stretch that previous required circuitous trips. Travel times are down by 30 to 45 minutes they say.

Average daily traffic on the six lane cable stayed bridge has been 22k vehicles after about seven months. The bridge is the centerpiece of a new 14km (9 mile) north-south expressway standard link.

The toll system is mounted on pairs of gantries. Readers, vehicle detection and classification equipment, cameras and lights allow toll by transponder or license plate recognition and billing.

Egis headed up a consortium called V-Flow which included Intrans the US subsidiary of French CS doing maintenance and Sanef a big French toller advising. C$59m ($56m) bought the front end gantry-borne equipment, a fully equipped back office for managing transactions, biilling, collections, customer relations and an interactive website plus eight years of operations.

After seven months 36k transponders have been issued and 22k video accounts established.

Egis provides toll free telephone number, 24 hour/7 days interactive voice response, the website www.quickpasstolling.ca, customer service email customercare@quickpasstolling.ca, in-person contacts, correspondence by mail or fax. There are a variety of payment methods - on-line payment, telephone banking, branch banking, automated teller machines, debit card, pre-authorized debit to account, Visa and Mastercard, and IVR (Interactive Voice Response).

The company has local partners on contract.

TOLLROADSnews 2010-02-22