open road tolling

Conversion of I-80 at the Delaware River to open road tolling (ORT) is being delayed a bit. Announced last year for the end of May (Memorial Day) the schedule has slipped to the end of November (Thanksgiving).

At last Delaware is moving to break the worst traffic bottleneck on the east coast - the Newark DE toll plaza on the I-95 Turnpike.

Virginia DOT was planning to use an existing contract with TransCore to implement about $54m of toll system upgrades to bring open road tolling (ORT) to the Dulles Toll Road in the Washington DC metro area. However a spokesman for the new DTR owners, Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) says they have the option to issue an open Request For Proposals to compete the project.

Dulles Toll Road has been put in for $44.1m of stimulus (aka ARRA TIGER) grants from the federal government to fund full open road tolling by its new operator Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA).

Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) recently launched a website to support the introduction of open road tolling on their I-80 Delaware River Water Gap Bridge.

Delaware River Port Authority are hiring Stantec to do design work on the open road toll lanes being done on the Betsy Ross toll bridge. They say they hope to the ORT lanes, being branded Express E-ZPass in operation in 2011. They hope it can be copied at the Commodore Barry Bridge.

New Hampshire DOT have selected Telvent Caseta to install open road toll systems at their biggest toll plaza - at Hampton on I-95. The $1.98m contract will cover toll systems work associated with the conversion, while civil works are being done under three separate contracts likely to total around $20m.

Sirit have brought out a new multi-protocol reader to improve their toll offering. Called the IDentity 5200 (or ID5200) it is described as "ruggedized" and providing more flexibility than the ID5100, presently the company's major toll reader. The ID5200 reader can cover two full lanes of traffic and read transponders of two quite different protocols.

Betsy Ross Bridge about 4 miles, 7km up the Delaware River from the Philadelphia central business district will be one of the first bridges in the northeast to get open road tolling (ORT).

Texas Turnpike Authority division of TxDOT (TTAD) is moving to use the courts to enforce payment by hardcore non-payers on the Central Texas turnpikes about a year after the current network (130 Toll 1-4, 45 North, Loop 1) was completed and about 30 months after the first substantial segments were open.

New Hampshire DOT's Bureau of Turnpikes is working "feverishly" to introduce open road tolling through the middle of their main Hampton toll plaza on I-95 by May 30th 2010. Administrator Harvey Goodwin tells us the rush of New Yorkers and Bostonians heading north starts in earnest in June, so to avoid another summer of toll plaza backups they've set a tough target date and a fast schedule.

Delaware governor Jack Markell's office has announced that the state will spend federal "stimulus funds" to implement open road tolling and modernize the approaches to the notoriously congested Newark DE both-ways toll plaza on I-95 near the Maryland border.

Affiliated Computer Systems (ACS) has won the open road tolling (ORT) contract for the I-78 and I-80 bridges over the Delaware River between New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is charging ahead with procurement of toll systems for I-80. They have just issued an request for proposals (RFP) with a deadline just five weeks away. No prebid meetings and qualifying of contractors, just a deadline for questions of Aug 15, and then bids due Sept 15.

"This is a real fast track," said one toll systems guy we asked about it.

Miami Dade Expressway Authority's (MDX) procurement of a cashless toll system planned to begin procurement early September will ask for an option to take over customer service from Florida Turnpike Enterprise's SunPass, says Steve Andriuk, director of operations. Our earlier report - without the benefit of a conversation with Andriuk - said handling of transponder transactions would remain with FTE's SunPass.

Miami Dade Expressway Authority (MDX) is expected to begin formal procurement in early September of the toll systems needed to dispense with cash toll collection and go all-electronic. Along with North Texas Tollway Authority (Dallas TX) MDX has set 2012 as the target year for having all-electronic tolling (AET) complete, and cash collection permanently closed down.

TransCore plan to lodge an appeal against the May 22 US District Court's dismissal of their complaint against ETC on patent infringement in Illinois. An official said: "I don't think you'll find this is the end of the story."

US District Court in Dallas has dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit by TransCore against ETC alleging infringement of open road tolling patents in the E-ZPass area. TransCore alleged in their suit that ETC improperly used methodologies they owned through patents for open road tolling with the IAG's Mark IV transponders and readers.

Jim Eden chief operating officer at the North Carolina Turnpike says after two weeks of vendor demonstrations of their license plate reading cameras that he's impressed by the diversity of different systems on offer. May 5 to 15 North Carolina Turnpike Authority hosted eight license plate reading vendors demonstrating their abilities in an open road setting.

Latest unofficial word is that the long awaited IAG procurement for next generation E-ZPass toll technology will be out in February. However the executive director of the IAG Jim Crawford says: "At this point I can neither confirm nor deny any speculation regarding an RFP."