houston

Houston Metro, the area transit authority that operates HOV lanes has formally authorized their conversion to HOT lanes in which single occupant vehicles (SOVs) will be admitted for a toll. A Metro board meeting Thursday set toll rates to be in a range between $1.00 and $10.00 per trip.

Most American architects are boringly attached to the progressivist dogmas of transit-oriented development (TOD), and sustainability (environmental that is, not financial), and they lament automobiles and roads.

So it's refreshing to discover an architect outside that tedious mold.

Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) which operates six tollroads in the Houston metro area is doing a big toll system upgrade. This is the first complete system upgrade they've done since they first introduced electronic tolling in 1993. Many incremental improvements have been made by inhouse staff and ETC Corp which has been the longtime system integrator to HCTRA.

TransCore has announced $81m worth of contracts with Houston METRO for conversion of five HOV corridors to HOT Lanes. Houston Metro board approved the contracts back on March 19 but we missed it.

Harris County (Houston) Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) are raising their transponder tolls - brand: EZ TAG - by a nickel (5c) at mainline plazas on the Sam Houston, Hardy and Westpark tollroads today. Tolls go from $1.25 to $1.30 for cars.

Cash tolls remain the same at $1.50.

Five years after it opened the Westpark Tollway in Houston has to have major repairs to remedy drainage problems in depressed segments.

Toll Collection resumes Saturday morning (Sept 27) on the Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) system. The decision was made by the County CEO Ed Emmett and tollroad officials Sept 24.

Houston's tollroads are open and busy and carrying large traffic volumes in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, but there's no early prospect of resuming toll collection. Gary Stobb, spokesman at Harris County Toll Road Authority says he doesn't expect tolls to be collected "until we're a lot closer to normality than we are now."

Harris County Toll Road Authority in Houston told its employees not to report to work at the authority offices Friday or Saturday because the tollroads were shutting down. Tolls have not been collected since before Hurricane Ike, which hit the Houston area late Friday night and through Saturday morning. Toll collection ceased at 7pm (19:00) Sept 10, Wednesday evening to assist with evacuations ordered for the southeast part of the metro area.