News

2013-04-25: Kapsch has released the specifications of the time division multiplexing (TDM) protocols used in E-ZPass electronic toll collection signaling.

2013-04-22: The I-185 Southern Connector tollroad in Greenville SC is closed for three days - from 10pm Sunday April 21st to 10pm Wednesday - for a film shoot.  A notice prominently highlighted on the pike's website has been warning of the closure, saying all access points will be barricaded. And in case anyone was tempted to move the barricades, it says these will be "manned by law enforcement officers."

2013-04-19: Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority (RITBA) directors under pressure from shrill populists and special interests to abandon plans to toll the Sakonnet River bridge reaffirmed the start of tolling July 1 in a vote Wednesday.  David Darlington chairman of RITBA says the authority can't fund necessary maintenance of the four bridges it's responsible for without larger toll revenues.

The Dulles Greenway's holding company Toll Roads Investors Partnership II (TRIP2) $-billion of outstanding bonds have been downrated by Fitch from BBB- to BB+, reflecting what the rating firm says is high leverage, expected thin coverage of debt service and dependence for liquidity on increases in tolls beyond already high levels.

2013-04-18: Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization (HRTPO) officials are putting out the idea of congestion tolls on the I-64 Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel (HRBT) and the I-664 Monitor Merrimack Bridge Tunnel (MMBT) to manage traffic. Chairman of the HRTPO Molly Ward and chief executive Dwight Farmer included the idea in a presentation to the state transportation board this week in a powerpoint slide (reproduced nearby.)

2013-04-18: TransCore has quietly told major customers that it is prepared to license the use of toll tag protocols eGo and SeGo in the readers manufactured by Kapsch and 3M/Sirit. There has been no discussion of the license fee $-amounts or terms, our sources say. TransCore made the offer in order to keep the protocols in play for adoption for national interoperability (IOP).

2013-04-17: HB1197 introduced in the state legislature today by Republicans would abolish the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission turning its storied turnpike over to the state DOT. The bill's prime sponsor was state Representative and deputy Whip Donna Oberlander from Clarion in the northwest of the state.

2013-04-15: The Toll Roads as they are branded in Orange County California are due to go cashless and all-electronic (AET) in the spring of 2014 according to announcement of contracts the boards of the Transportation Corridors Agencies have just approved with TransCore.

Maryland's general assembly has passed HB420, a bill bringing state law into line with video toll practice. And it gives the state toll authority (Maryland Transportation Authority or MdTA) the power to adopt reciprocal agreements with other states to collect out-of-state video tolls. HB420 was supported by MdTA and the governor is expected to sign it into law. It would go into effect July 1.

2013-04-12: The US Department of State announced today that it has issued the US Presidential Permit that represents the last federal authorization needed for the proposed New International Trade Crossing (NITC) toll bridge that the Canadian Government plans to have built 1.8 miles downriver of the Ambassador Bridge.