Charging, Tolling & RUC

The Mersey Gateway Project in Liverpool, UK, has been endorsed by the UK’s most senior civil engineer, Nick Baveystock, director general of the Institution of Civil Engineers, on a trip to the area see the location of the new bridge and learn more about plans for the project. The centrepiece of the Mersey Gateway Project is a new six-lane toll bridge over the River Mersey. The existing Silver Jubilee Bridge will also be tolled as part of the project, which is expected to help create thousands of new jobs

Bay Area Infrastructure Financing Authority (BAIFA) has announced the competitive procurement of a toll system integrator (TSI) to design and provide toll systems for nearly 90 directional miles of toll express lanes and expects to be tolling a total of 270 miles within a few years. The plan is to develop toll express lanes following agreement on a regional network in which all the area's HOV lanes will be tolled for single and two occupant vehicles. The RFP covers three initial projects: 55 kilometres o

Q-Free is to implement its enhanced imaging processing (EIP) solution for the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX), USA in a contract worth around US$6.9 million. EIP utilises automatic licence plate reader (ALPR) and vehicle signature recognition (VSR) software and enables toll authorities to achieve high automation and low error rates using artificial intelligence and self learning capabilities. The system interfaces with existing toll road back office systems, minimising operational cost, errors, an

Vendors, service providers and US states who want to seek and share information about the new road usage charge legislation recently passed by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) should attend a day-long meeting on 13 November at the World Trade Centre in Portland, Oregon. ODOT wants to share details as well as gather information that can help it craft the nation’s first road usage charge program. The ODOT team will be available to meet with specific vendors in scheduled one-on-one sessions.

A significant milestone in the redevelopment and expansion of Interstate 35W in Fort Worth, one of the most critical and most-congested corridors in the North Texas region and in the country has been achieved by NTE Mobility Partners Segments 3 LLC (NTEMP3). They have reached financial agreement on Segment 3A of the North Tarrant Express (NTE), paving the way for the reconstruction and expansion of the interstate. The project is being financed through a unique combination of public and private funds: US$

Brazil’s government announced plans in 2012 to sell state asset to private investors through long term concession deals that would give the winning bidder the right to operate roads, rails and ports, many once built by the government, for around 30 years. The government is now looking to contain the risk involved with high tolls during the privatisation process for roads, and will initially auction off motorways with the lowest tolls.

Brazil's national ground transport agency Agência Nacional de Transportes Terrestres (ANTT) has received eight bids for its US$1.34 billion BR-050 federal highway concession between the states of Goiás and Minas Gerais. The thirty-year concession involves the construction of the BR-050 highway, including restoration, maintenance, road widening and other improvements to provide a 437 kilometre highway along the Minas Gerais and São Paulo border, with six toll booths.

The Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission (OTIC) has approved the US$930 million funding needed for ten projects in northern Ohio, each within twenty miles of the turnpike. The 241 mile-long, limited-access toll highway serves as a primary corridor to Chicago and Pittsburgh.

A new report by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (MWCOG) finds that support for a toll managed lanes network grows somewhat the more it is discussed, whereas a vehicle miles travelled charge loses support after discussion. Among 300 people who participated in five-hour moderated small group discussions of alternative ways of dealing with traffic congestion in the Washington DC metro area, toll express lanes on all major highways receiv

NATSO, the US association representing travel plazas and truck-stops, has rejected the report prepared by the Reason Foundation that pushes for widespread tolling. "The public detests interstate tolls, and with good reason," said NATSO president and CEO Lisa Mullings. "Tolls divert motorists and truck drivers to non-interstates, leading to more traffic deaths. Additionally, it costs the government more money to collect tolls than to collect fuel taxes."