Ireland making leap to no-cash highway speed tolling on Dublin beltway

Ireland's National Roads Authority has awarded a $147m (E113m@$1.3) contract to a Sanef(80%)-CS(20%) subsidiary BetEire to install and operate 2x3 lanes of no-cash highway speed electronic tolling on the M50 beltway around Dublin.

Transponder readers, cameras and lights on gantries over the roadway will replace the existing concessionaire operated stop-to-pay toll plaza in August 2008 if all goes to schedule.Located in the so-called West Link segment of Dublin's M50 belt route between the N3 and N4 interchanges, and close by the Liffey River bridge, this is Ireland's highest volume toll facility with 120k vehicles paying tolls on the average day.

The Sanef-CS system involves a pair of gantries for each direction of traffic, the gantries 11m (36ft) apart. A set of downward pointing optical detection and profiling sensors on the first gantry will trigger algorithms which track the vehicle, check its size and shape, and hence vehicle class, and generate activity on the second gantry. The second gantry has antennas for radio data queries for a transponder and lights and cameras. The equipment generates either a transponder read of a toll account number or a frontview camera image of the vehicle, from which can be extracted the license plate number.

Five options for payment

In this open road tolling system motorists will be able to pay tolls five ways:

- establishing a transponder account and deploying a transponder on the windshield and getting lowest toll rate

- establish a video toll account by giving car details including license plate number and payment arrangement (card or bank account to charge) to the customer service center via telephone or web for regular video tolls to an account

- for occasional trips motorist initiative to call customer service center, log-on to website or use retail outlet and pay by 20:00 (8pm) of the next day

- pay within 10 days of receipt of toll bill plus administrative fee in the mail

- pay second request for payment, a multiple of the toll within 28 days

After that the non-payer is a violator with a collection agency after them.

The contract with Sanef-CS provides for eight years of operation of the CSC.

COMPANIES

Sanef, part of the Abertis group, is one of the larger European toll service providers under the brand name Eurotoll, managing tolls on a third of French motorways and 2/3 of those in the Paris region. Like most French toll operators it was set up as a commercial operation but had the majority of its shares state owned until 2005 when it was privatized. Privatization has allowed it to move beyond operation of its own concessions into contracting services for others - such as the M50 work in ireland.

CS is a leading French systems integrator with operations in many countries including the US.

Part of major upgrade to M50

The existing M50 is being widened and upgraded for 31km (19mi) and a southern extension is under construction. The existing 2x2 lane expressway is being widened to three and four lanes (the 4th an auxiliary lane) each direction. Also three interchanges are being rebuilt to provide direct connector ramps in place of grade separated roundabouts, and another five interchanges are being modernized.

24km (15mi) are being done as a new toll concession and the remainder financed with tax money.

A preferred concessionaire was announced Mar 21 as a joint venture of two Spanish groups FCC and Itinere and Irish PJ Hegarty. Other bidders were heavily Spanish.

Buying out NTR concession on West Link 12 years early

The Irish government has announced its intention to buy out the M50 West Link toll concession in order to implement the open road tolling that Sanef/CS will install. The concession with National Toll Roads (now NTR) plc was granted by the Dublin City Council in 1987 and was due to run for 30 years from 1990 when the bridge opened to 2020. The first bridge was a single span carrying 2x2 lanes.

Now under the central government's National Roads Authority, the concessionaire financed a second span which opened Sept 2003. This provides 2x3 lanes.

Waiting times improved but weaving movements associated with a nearby interchange limited the benefits. In the past several years the capacity of the toll plaza has been overwhelmed - generating a drumbeat of criticism and complaints that has given he concessionaire a bad name.

In mid-2008 when the new all-electronic toll point opens the NTR concession will be terminated having run 18 of its 30 years. The government and NTR have negotiated compensation of E50m ($65m) per year escalating each year with the CPI for the remaining 12 years of the concession.

TOLLROADSnews 2007-04-06