Charging, Tolling & RUC

A pilot project which began last month and which saw trucks banned on toll roads in Jakarta city, Indonesia, has produced dramatic results. The ban helped to cut traffic congestion in the city by 40 per cent, while average speeds rose from 15-20 km/h before the ban to 60-80 km/h.

The authorities in Puerto Rico awarded a contract to a consortium for two toll roads under a 40 year deal. The joint venture partnership comprises Spanish firm Abertis and Goldman Sachs' GS Global Infrastructure Partners II. The deal concerns the 83km PR22 road and the 8km PR5 road. The PR22 link is a major route with up to 10 lanes at its widest point while the urban PR5 road runs from PR22 to the western suburbs of San Juan.

The Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority (KABATA) has issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for concessionaires to design, construct, finance, operate and maintain the Knik Arm Crossing under an availability payment public-private partnership. Statements of Qualifications (SOQ) are due 15 September, 2011 at 4:00PM Alaska Daylight Saving Time. The RFQ can be downloaded at http://notes4.state.ak.us/pn/pubnotic.nsf or interested parties can receive the RFQ by contacting Michele Casey at michele.casey@alaska

The Northern Capital Highway (NCH) consortium has been named the preferred bidder in the tender for the central section of St Petersburg’s Western High-Speed Diameter (WHSD) project. Should NCH win the tender process it will build and then operate the entire stretch of the toll road. The consortium comprises VTB Capital and Gazprombank from Russia in partnership with Italian company Astaldi and Turkish firm Ictas Insaat.

The Austrian Traffic Club (VCÖ) which is the principal organisation in the country working for environmentally sustainable, socially just, and economically efficient mobility, has called for the introduction of truck tolls for rural highways. The organisation says that trucks wear down roads 35,000 times more than cars and also claims that in 2010 truck transport caused road infrastructure-related costs of US$4.78 billion but it paid only $3.46 via tolls and taxes.

Motorway toll systems of Slovakia and Austria may be interconnected as part of the planned European interoperability. Operators of the national systems, SkyToll of Slovakia and Asfinag of Austria, have expressed interest in cooperation, saying that they will hold further, more detailed negotiations. SkyToll claims that the satellite system in Slovakia is ready for interoperability with the systems of the neighbouring countries and any changes can be implemented quickly.

Kapsch TrafficCom has won an important order for an electronic toll collection (ETC) system for multi-lane free-flow traffic on 520 kilometres of Portugal’s primary road network. The company will install a total of 38 toll stations for the new system – doing away with the need for manual toll collection. When the system is fully deployed, tolls will be collected from all vehicles using this newly created ETC system. Kapsch will subsequently provide technical operation and maintenance of the system for the P

Kapsch TrafficCom IVHS has been selected by the E-ZPass Group, a coalition of 24 toll agencies in 14 US states, as vendor for a new 10-year technology and services contracts, subject to individual agency approval processes. As a result of the selection, Kapsch TrafficCom IVHS will continue to provide transponders, readers, ancillary equipment and services to support the operations of members of the E-ZPass Group, who collectively operate the largest interoperable toll collection system in the world with mor

Efkon and its advertising agency Rubikon have received the international WebAward from the Web Marketing Association for the development of the company’s website.

A new incentive plan proposed by Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection (FETC) to provide free new eTag units to non-electronic toll collection (ETC) users from February 2012 has been agreed by the National Freeway Bureau (NFB). Non-ETC users will get the free eTag units once they have deposited US$17.39 in their unit account. In addition, a free switch from the old on-board units (OBUs) to the new eTag units will be given to existing ETC users. The new eTag ETC system will be rolled out in February 2012 an