Charging, Tolling & RUC

Eliminating tolls on state highways throughout Texas would be prohibitively expensive, state legislators who are considering such a plan have learned, says the National Council for Public-Private Partnerships. Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) undertook research how much it would take to eliminate the highways for which it is responsible. It estimates the price of removing tolls on those highways would be at least US$24.2 billion and would increase over time, TxDOT executive director James Bass

Australia’s first real-world trial of road charging options has found that motorists are open to a different way of paying for the nation’s roads. Transurban chief executive officer Scott Charlton said the first stage of the Melbourne Road Usage Study suggested a user-pays system could work in Australia, providing fair, sustainable and flexible funding for the infrastructure. The 18-month study, led by Transurban and supported by independent research and technology specialists, looked at how people used

Eurotunnel, owner of the Channel Tunnel, a key high-speed trnsport connection between the UK and France, has selected Arbor technology’s FPC-7701 fanless box PC for both its manned and fully automated toll booths which require reliable ruggedised embedded computing systems to maximise check-in efficiency. Processes such as number plate recognition, barrier control and ticket printing are controlled through this PC interface.

Q-Free and local partner Telekom Slovenije have been awarded a contract for the nationwide truck tolling project by DARS in Slovenia. The contract value for Q-Free is approximately US$57.5 million (NOK 470 million).

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) is to move ahead with plans to completely demolish Interstate 90 toll plazas by the end of 2017 as a milestone in the state’s progress toward all electronic tolling (AET) along Interstate 90 (the Massachusetts Turnpike), the Tobin Bridge, and Boston tunnels. MassDOT has announced that AET will go live on 28 October and says the system will improve driver convenience and safety and reduce greenhouse gas-causing vehicle emissions. “When toll booths

Humber Bridge Board in the UK has awarded Spanish tolling systems integrator SICE the contract for maintenance of its tolling system for the next four years. The company installed the hybrid tolling system which, has two central lanes with electronic toll (multi-lane free flow or open road tolling) and traditional side lanes and fully renovated conventional side to allow users to pay either by distance tolling or at manned tollbooths SICE will carry out maintenance of the system hardware, software, ne

Colin Sowman reports form Asecap’s Study & Information Days event in Madrid. At Asecap’s (the Association of European Toll Road Operators) recent Study and Information Days event there was no doubt about the subject at the top of the agenda: the European Union Directive 23/2014/EU. This will introduce fundamental changes to the concession model under which Asecap members operate more than 50,000km of tolled highways and, in response, it has compiled a report entitled Proposal for a Sustainable Concession Mo

Five tolling agencies and a private firm have captured top honours in the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) 2016 National Toll Excellence Awards. Recipients of the 2016 awards include: Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise – I-4 Connector, which receives the Administration & Finance award, while the North Carolina Turnpike Authority receives the Customer Service & Marketing Outreach for its multi-agency interoperability capability. The Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agen

Drivers crossing Chile’s capital are benefitting from additional investment in ITS. Mauro Nogarin reports. Santiago de Chile is pioneering the development of concession-interoperable, multi-lane, free-flow urban highways. This road network crosses the city from north to south (Autopista Central), from east to west (Costanera Norte) and also includes the north-western (Vespucio Norte) and southern (Vespucio Sur) ring roads surrounding this metropolitan area of seven million people.

HNTB’s Matthew Click sets out why a move to mileage-based pricing is inevitable. Infrastructure is the most neglected yet the most critical engine of our society, and our continued indifference could lead to a dystopian future. Our roads, bridges and highways have been largely passed by in the digital age—marginalised in an era when funding is limited and stewardship of physical assets has given way to our preoccupation with technological innovation and data—the stuff of the virtual realm.