Charging, Tolling & RUC

David Crawford reports on energy cost cutting on US highways. Just over a year after switch-on and with two global awards under its belt, the longest solar-powered toll road in the US is generating heightened interest in highway applications of alternative energy. The E-407, which loops around the eastern perimeter of the Denver metropolitan area in Colorado, won the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) President’s Overall Award for Excellence at its September 2013 Annual Meeting in

Australia’s Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) has awarded Q-Free an order for its OBU610 tags valued at US$2.4 million. This latest generation toll transponder is claimed by the company to be the smallest of its kind, yet powerful enough to support both single and multiple protocol applications. With a battery life of more than seven years, the transponder supports any application from single lane to full multi-lane free-flow and open-road tolling.

From 1 January, Mike Heiligenstein, executive director of the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA), Austin, Texas, began his year-long term as president of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA). He says: “Over the next year, I look forward to leading our industry’s international association while highlighting the great work at The Mobility Authority and other IBTTA member organisations around the globe.” Eight other directors also began new terms on the IBTTA’s bo

Launched in August 2013, the electronic tolling system installed in Belarus by Kapsch has seen a high level of use, with the number of registered users to date standing at approximately 160,000. This high usage has lead to the system being extended by 118 kilometres from January 2014. The expansion covers a segment of the M4 Minsk to Mogilev road, which will increase the total length of the Kapsch-operated toll roads in Belarus to 933 kilometres; an additional eleven tolling and enforcement gantries will

Portuguese tag issuer Via Verde, part of the Brisa Group, has ordered on-board units from Q-Free in an order worth approximately US$1.9 million. The order will be delivered within the second quarter of 2014. Q-Free’s fourth generation OBU610 is small and unobtrusive, yet powerful enough to support all applicable 5.8GHz CEN DSRC protocols for automatic registration, identification and fee collection from vehicles. “Via Verde has been customer of Q-Free since 1995 and we have now supplied more than 3.2

Georgia Tolls has awarded contracts for their second and third toll express lanes project on I-75 south and I-75/575 northwest. With national interoperability planned they require the toll systems supplier to install multi-protocol readers on the toll gantries to E-ZPass transponders as well as 6C sticker tags. Toll system integrator will be 3M who is to provide the toll system including vehicle detection, tracking and classification loops, 3-protocol RF readers, license plate imaging cameras and illumin

Spanish technology multinational Indra has been awarded four new contracts worth US$17 million for its traffic control and toll technology in Mexico. The technology will be implemented on the Paquete Michoacán motorways, the Poetas fast lane, the Celaya ring road motorway and the Necaxa Tihuatlan tunnels. Intelligent traffic systems (ITS) and toll systems will be deployed on the Celaya ring road motorway, including a control centre to integrate the various ITS and surveillance sub-systems via closed circ

Kapsch TrafficCom has been appointed to deliver two high profile electronic tolling projects in Australia. The contracts will see Kapsch TrafficCom deliver multi-lane free-flow (MLFF) tolling solutions on the Eastern Distributor toll road in Sydney and the Legacy Way toll road in Brisbane using Kapsch multi-lane free-flow single gantry technology. Kapsch TrafficCom’s single gantry solution will be deployed in both projects and to provide stereoscopic vehicle detection and classification, front and rear l

As this issue of ITS International goes to press there is considerable confusion over the introduction of the French Ecotax following widespread and sometimes violent protests. Following a series of postponements going back over several years, the GNSS-based tax on vehicles over 3.5 tonnes was due to come into effect on 1 January 2014 and was expected to raise one billion euros per year. However, the French government has announced that the tax has been suspended indefinitely but is stressing that this is

A new ten year plan released by the Maine Turnpike Authority defers decisions on work to upgrade its three largest toll plazas pending completion of a next generation toll collection study that will consider the costs and benefits of going all-electronic, versus open road electronic tolling (ORT) and cash and a timetable. Objections from local residents and the failure of the Turnpike to consider the alternative of all-electronic tolling (AET) led to the delay of a previous ten year plan in 2009 that set