I-85

2012-04-24: Georgia's I-85 Express Lanes in their sixth month of operation continue to show strong growth in traffic with a stable average toll rate of around $1.20/trip. In March weekday trips averaged 16.8 thousand (k) 2.3 times the 7.3k in October last year, the first full month of operations of the high occupancy/toll lane.

The Georgia I-85 toll express lanes (GA85XL) now in their eighth week of operation continue to attract more patronage, but tolls while growing, are still low per mile.  We've worked on seven full weeks of data. Average weekday traffic in the variably priced lanes is now 11,210 vs 4,170 in the first week.

Georgia I-85 Express Lanes (GA/I-85XL) traffic is growing strongly in the third week of operations without loss of travel time advantages as compared to the second week. Tuesday toll-paying traffic Oct 18 is reported at 9200 vs 5773 Tues Oct 11 and 3513 Tues Oct 4.

The launch of managed toll lanes this week on I-85 northeast of Atlanta was so mismanaged that the state Governor intervened after three days and very publicly ordered changes.  For three nights TV, radio and the press in Atlanta reported the fiasco of noticeably worse congestion in the general purpose lanes alongside almost empty "Express" or toll managed lanes on the big highway northeast out of Atlanta, the first in a huge proposed network.

Great merriment here today in Frederick Maryland, since according to the signage over I-70 we've got a new Interstate: I-85.

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 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.