Maine Turnpike stick to 'fat' toll plaza design, city of York hires AET expert to contest

The Maine Turnpike Authority this week voted unanimously at their monthly board meeting this week to seek US government permits for a wide new mainline toll plaza with open road tolling (ORT) down the middle, but retaining cash collection to either side. The nearby south Maine town of York is fiercely opposed to the plan because it takes new land, perpetuates stop-&-go traffic, and is wasteful. The town government last week signed up eTrans Group consultants to provide expert engineering advice on all-electronic toll (AET) options that would allow free-flow, which the Turnpike has so far rejected.

eTrans Group engineers were heavily involved in the planning and implementation of all-electronic tolling on the pioneer cashless tollroad 407-ETR in Toronto Canada in the 1990s and will provide a formidable counter to HNTB, the Maine Turnpike's major consultant.

The issue will go before the US Army Corps of Engineers this spring for Phase I approval.

The Turnpike is proposing a wide and long new toll plaza for ORT + cash centered at either Milemarker (MM) 8.7 or at MM9.1. These are just 'up the road' (north) of the existing mainline toll plaza which is at  MM7.3. The two sites overlap one another so there is essentially one proposal with a slight variant.

The milemarker notation simply denotes the centerpoint.  Milemarkers are measured from the New Hampshire border northward.

The Turnpike here is 3+3 lanes and carries the I-95 designation. The existing toll plaza was built in 1969 and is in poor condition. It's location is poor because it is at a low point. It's structures have poor foundations and have moved over the yearrs. Being on a curve sightlines are poor for motorists. Also there's an interchange close by making for weaving problems.

No-build and rebuilding at the existing MM7.3 location are formally listed as options as a requirement of the US Government permitting process.

If the Turnpike gets US approval of Phase 1, they plan to move to a Phase 2 study in which one of the four options (apparently MM8.7 or MM9.1) will be submitted as the preferred one for approval.

Competing with the Turnpike-HNTB ORT+cash proposal will be the York-eTrans AET proposal.

The Turnpike said today:

"The option at the existing site of the toll plaza (mile marker 7.3) does not meet the basic engineering and safety guidelines, has significant wetland impacts and is more expensive, but engineers advised that it be kept alive because it represented the best option at the existing site.

"The option at mile marker 7.3 would not displace any homes. It would impact approximately 28 acres of wetlands and would cost an estimated $56 million to construct.

"The option at mile marker 8.7 would meet the engineering and safety guidelines. It is located more than a mile away from an interchange, on a straight stretch of highway and on the crest of a hill. It would not displace any homes. It would impact approximately 1.7 acres of wetlands and would cost an estimated $34m.

"The option at mile marker 9.1 is also properly positioned to meet the engineering and safety guidelines. It would not displace any homes. It would impact approximately 3.8 acres of wetlands and would cost an estimated $35m to construct.

"A no-build option is also being carried forward as a requirement of the environmental permitting process. The no-build option would still require significant investments to keep the plaza operating safely, but would not address any of the engineering and safety goals. Open Road Tolling could not be implemented under the no build option."

The Turnpike authority notes that the York Toll Plaza is critical to the operation of the Maine Turnpike, collecting more than $36m in toll revenue last year, more than half of which came from out-of-state motorists. They say that the proposed open road tolling system would reduce gas consumption and auto emissions. It would also improve safety by separating moving E-ZPass traffic from cash paying traffic that must stop at a toll booth."

The Turnpike has not costed an all-electronic toll (AET) point, but based on AET projects in Texas, Florida, California and other states the capital cost is probably in the range $10m to $15m, roughly one third of the cost of the Maine Turnpike plan. Operating costs are also lower in AET too.

But the Turnpike Authority is convinced that cash lanes are essential for minimizing toll avoidance - for collecting a high proportion of tolls.

The resolution passed by the Turnpike board this weeks says:

"Whereas, in July of 2007, the MTA determined that any mainline toll plaza replacement project should be designed to incorporate an Open Road Tolling system that would provide E-ZPass customers with the convenience of paying their tolls electronically at normal highway speeds and maintain cash toll collection for non-E-ZPass users, while ensuring the MTA’s ability to effectively collect revenue and enforce payment;

"Whereas, the MTA determined that an Open Road Tolling System that offers cash toll collection is more suitable and financially prudent for the Maine Turnpike’s unique traffic mix, which includes a high percentage out-of-state and occasional users, than an All-Electronic (cashless) Tolling system that would be reliant on interstate and international billing and enforcement protocols that do not currently exist and are uncertain to exist in the future;"

Town of York officials and the citizen group Think Again point out that interstate and Canadian motorists will also need to be pursued for payment under the Turnpike ORT+cash design since these out of state otorists can drive the central open road lanes without a transponder. The provision of cash toll booths at the side will reduce the volume of interstate and international billing, but not the nature of the collection challenge.

ORT being open has exactly the same kind of collection challenge as AET. The only difference is that without cash collection to the sides the volume of camera-based/license plate read transactions is larger with AET.

The Turnpike resolution passed is here:

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/sites/default/files/MTAResolution20100223.pdf

BACKGROUND: The Turnpike's proposal has six open road toll lanes plus shoulders and 9 (4 NB, 5 SB) cash toll lanes for a total width of 102m (335ft). The present toll plaza has 17 stop-to-pay or roll-through lanes and is 90m (295ft) wide. The new plaza will be substantially longer because of the need to safely separate stopping-to-pay traffic from open road traffic and to safely merge them again downstream.

ORT+cash toll plazas need to be much long than all stop-to-pay/roll-through toll plazas because the belly-out/belly-in elements have to be much more gradual.

The first Turnpike plan for the new southern toll plaza was for 6 ORT lanes and 15 cash lanes (7 NB, 8 SB) which would have been 132m (435ft) wide. Six cash lanes were trimmed off the design to reduce costs and make it more acceptable, saving 30m (100ft) width.

eTrans Group, hired by the town of York is headed up by a Maine native, Daryl Fleming who now lives in the Atlanta GA area. He has had major work in electronic tolling on 407ETR in Toronto, in southern California, Puerto Rico and Georgia. He has a number of experienced toll engineers he can bring into projects from California and elsewhere.

http://www.maineturnpike.com/about/stp.php

http://www.etransgroup.com/index.htm

TOLLROADSnews 2010-02-24