eTrans Group say all-electronic the way to go in S Maine, HNTB taken apart

Posted on Tue, 2010-04-27 01:02

A study commissioned by the town of York in south Maine argues that all-electronic toll (AET) collection is both the most cost-effective and the most environmentally friendly solution to the longstanding dispute over a new 'gateway toll plaza' on the south end of the Maine Turnpike. The report by eTrans Group challenges the Turnpike's notion that AET is more financially risky than open road tolling (ORT). It says open road tolling (ORT) opens the Turnpike to major revenue losses unless an effective back office operation collects from interstate motorists. The same back office operation can support all-electronic tolling (AET).

The Turnpike Authority (MTA) advised by HNTB has advanced three different options using open road toll collection in the central highway lanes plus cash toll collection in side lanes (ORT+cash) as part of the federal permitting process. The Turnpike so far has dismissed all-electronic (AET) as too risky financially.

eTrans main conclusion is: "The risks from implementing AET are no greater than the risks from implementing ORT, unless (a) one assumes that providing the cash toll option in an adjacent toll plaza is going to somehow make those who would evade the toll suddenly choose to do the right thing; and, (b) all of those that drive through the open lanes without a tag are treated as violators…an interesting and very expensive public relations issue."

Old line civil engineers v. system operations engineers

The disagreement pits HNTB, an old-line civil engineering firm based in Kansas City advising MTA against York township's adviser eTrans Group, a handful of systems engineers who have played a lead role in development of AET over the past 15 years. Daryl S Fleming based in the Atlanta GA area is the author of the eTrans report. He and other eTrans system engineers played a key role in development of 407ETR, 91 Express Lanes and other modern toll technologies.

York and other local communities have been resisting efforts by the Maine Turnpike Authority (MTA) to relocate the existing York gateway plaza arguing that the existing oldstyle all-stop-to-pay (ASTP) toll plaza should be retained for the five to ten years until AET can be implemented. MTA advised by HNTB have said that all-electronic won't be ready for 20 years.

Mayor optimistic

After receiving the eTrans report lasts week Mike Estes chairman of the York town board is quoted by the York area Seacoastonline: "eTrans thinks that process of all-electronic is even more accelerated than what we thought. The expert is saying both the MTA and we are wrong. It's here today."

Estes says that the eTrans report is so persuasive "we're very optimistic that commonsense will prevail."

The town of York has been supported in opposition to the Maine Turnpike Authority/HNTB ORT+cash plan by a toll plaza issue group called Think Again comprised of citizens aggrieved by big new toll plaza plans, plus York’s regional chamber of commerce and local legislators.

York town will formally submit the eTrans report to the US Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that must rule on the Turnpike's proposal for the toll plaza.

The potential sites proposed for a ORT+cash cover many coastal streams and wetlands and require acquisition of up to 7 acres (28,000m2) of land.

Existing toll plaza a disgrace

The deteriorated state of the existing York toll plaza is something of a disgrace almost everyone agrees.

It breaks all the siting rules even for oldstyle toll plazas:

- it is in a swampy area which has caused differential subsidence under toll plaza structures and water damage to underground equipment and tunnels

- being in a depressed area adds to the braking needed by every vehicle that stops to pay the toll

- it is on a horizontal curve complicating motorists sight lines to the correct lane

- also a safety issue it is too close to an interchange causing weaving conflicts

Trouble is all the alternates involving ORT+cash as recommended by HNTB are very expensive ($56m, $34m, or $35m) and involve impacts on wetlands and streams and land acquisition (8.1 acres, 7.0 acres, 7.0acres.) Although no homes are taken a number are heavily impacted by any nearby toll plaza that is constructed.

By contrast according to the eTrans report an AET toll point would cost only $6.9m. It would have a far smaller impact and no new land acquisition. In fact much of the land involved in the existing toll plaza could be returned to nature.

eTrans recommends that AET be installed on four gantries at the existing York interchange at milemarker 6.7. No access road is needed, just a place to park a service vehicle. Electric power is already available.

AET as a cashless mode is safest since motorists don't need to find money, choose lanes, diverge, brake, and merge again as they do in the ORT+cash schemes.

AET may collect more than ORT+cash

But the most dramatic break from the HNTB advice is eTrans argument that far from being financially risky all-electronic is likely to net more revenue than ORT+cash.

"Estimated current revenue losses for MTA’s cash toll operations at the York Toll Plaza (≥3.2%) is more than half of a realistic pessimistic estimate of revenue losses for AET operations at the York Toll Plaza (well below 6%). Once all things are considered, estimates of MTA’s current revenue losses in cash toll operations may be greater than its actual revenue losses under AET operations," eTrans says.

Under AET motorists without a tag who voluntarily contact the authority to pay their toll are typically charged a service fee for the benefit of not having to take the initiative to enroll and put a tag on their vehicle. But that service fee for the active payers is much smaller than that charged to passive motorists who have to be mailed a toll bill. The passive users of AET who wait for the bill are asked to cover the costs for the toller to find the name and address of the vehicle owner and to mail them the bill.

That charge is usually set at a level sufficient to recover the toll, plus the costs of all violations and enforcement activity and other tolls not recovered.

"Assessing service fees and penalties in an escalating manner according to the level of difficulty, cost and risk associated with collecting tolls at each level, enables the authority to recover the additional costs associated with collecting tolls from those vehicles. In fact, penalties associated with all violations enforcement processing (VEP) activity are usually set at a level sufficient to recover the costs of all VEP as well as the tolls not recovered."

Therefore, eTrans argues a conservative estimate for AET revenue losses is zero.

The report cites the fact that in less than a year on the AET-pioneer 407ETR in Toronto such collections including fees became "a profit center."

Fleming of eTrans was there at the time and was a lead consultant.

Cash collection always involves some leakage that HNTB overlooks - a certain level of thievery. eTrans puts that cash leakage at 3.2%.

The report sums up for USACE:

"In summary, most of the (HNTB) recommendations for NOT recommending AET fail to recognize that ORT and AET, if managed properly, require the same back-office functions. Therefore, since the MTA has already committed to provide these back-office functions for ORT (having embraced ORT), AET is, by default, a viable alternative and should continue to be considered as a practicable option in the (USACE) Phase II evaluation effort."

BACKGROUND: In defense of the Maine Turnpike stance New Hampshire and Delaware are both building ORT+cash toll plazas on their stretches of I-95, deferring a move to AET. However a big difference is that New Hampshire and Delaware can rebuild within the footprint of their existing stop-to-pay toll plazas. They have faced none of the challenges and questioning provoked by Maine Turnpike's need to find a new toll plaza location for ORT+cash.

MTA began the search for a new ORT+cash toll plaza site with the support of HNTB in 2005. Five years later they are hardly any nearer a permitted plan.

The ORT+cash toll plaza cannot be built at the site of the present York plaza because of nearby ramps, a curve in the road, and its location in wetlands (aka "a swamp"). Providing for open road tolling down the middle and traditional cash booths each side requires close to double the real estate of the existing toll plaza. And all at a new location.

Possible new locations for a Big ORT+cash plaza have proven unacceptable to local governments, leading the town of York to hire its own toll systems consultant for that second opinion.

eTrans Group were heavily involved in the detailed operations design of the very successful 407ETR in Toronto Canada - the first large multi-interchange tollroad to go all-electronic and they have been involved in several other radical overhauls of toll systems. Maine Turnpike Authority, by contrast, are hampered by being advised by HNTB, an old style civil engineering heavy firm without much experience with leading edge toll system design or customer service/violations issues.

The eTrans report: