Georgia

ETC Corporation was selected by Georgia State Road & Tollway Authority to be their integrator for the I-85 Express Lanes project and to provide a new back office for all their tolling. The price is $15,987,990. ETC of Richardson Texas with a  score of 1000 beat SICE scoring 855 and TransCore 851.

Georgia toll authority's I-85 HOT lanes procurement saw three companies bidding sticker tag transponders at $1.59 (TransCore), $1.79 (Neology) and $3.05 (Sirit). These are far and away the lowest prices ever bid for toll transponders in the US. The prices are for ISO 18000 6C (EPC GEN2) standard tags (6C), never to our knowledge specified before in any US toll procurement and never before offered by vendors.

TransCore have walked away with the Georgia I-85 HOT lanes toll system contract offering an open standard ISO 18000 6C GEN2 sticker tag based system for the first time, and at a rockbottom price. TransCore bid a mere $1,162,365 v $2,019,163 from Sirit, the established supplier of 6C gear.

Georgia state tollers have got an impressive five bids to supply new toll technology, initially to be deployed in toll/HOT lanes being built in I-85 northeast of Atlanta. I-85 with all respect to Georgia is a fiddly little toll project of small inherent importance to the industry. But the bidders clearly see it as a foot-in-the-door project that could open the way to serious toll system sales elsewhere.

Georgia State Road and Toll Authority (Georgia Toll) have begun procurement of new toll systems to be initially deployed on I-85 toll express lanes northeast of Atlanta but intended to replace those currently used on GA400, and to be a standard for tolling elsewhere in the state.

Gwinnett County in the northern part of the Atlanta region got one proposal in response to an RFP for a short toll expressway link to I-85. The Ronald Reagan Parkway Extension Project got a proposal - details not yet disclosed - from Skanska.

The project involves project development work to start with or "pre-development" they call it. The exact route is not chosen and a connection to I-85 either one of two existing interchanges or a new one.

The sex drive is complicating transportation policymaking in Atlanta GA. Georgia's State Transportation Board Chairman Mike Evans has resigned and Gena Abraham, CEO of the state DOT and of the State Toll Authority has been reprimanded for a love affair.

Abraham, 39 is a divorcee with a son, and Evans, 47 is a divorcee with two daughters.

Georgia State Road Toll Authority (GSRTA) is in turmoil with the removal of executive director Rosa Rountree. She seems to have lost out in a powerplay between the governor and the legislature over the future of the agency. The Governor has announced an intention to reorganize GDOT, GSRTA and other agencies.

Spokesman for the Georgia Department of Transportation, Crystal Paulk-Buchanan tells us her boss the new commissioner of transportation Gena Abraham is certainly reviewing toll projects in the state, along with non-toll projects. But she says a report quoting the Commissioner as saying "she might scrap the whole list of (toll) projects and start over" is flat wrong.