Charging, Tolling & RUC

D’Artagnan Consulting has been awarded a four-year contract to support the US Western Road Usage Charge Consortium (WRUCC), a voluntary group of twelve state Departments of Transportation. D’Artagnan will undertake collaborative research into policy and system development of new transportation funding methods that involve collecting a road usage charge (RUC) from drivers based on distance travelled on the roadway network. The company will investigate, develop, and potentially demonstrate various aspec

Kapsch TrafficCom has expanded its presence into the US Silicon Valley and acquired controlling ownership of California-based smart parking solutions provider Streetline. Streetline is a major provider of real-time parking data, analytics and other smart transportation applications to more than 30 cities, universities and corporate campuses in North America and Europe. Kapsch says it will integrate Streetline’s smart parking applications and data analytics with Kapsch’s intelligent transportation sy

IBTTA's Toll Excellence Awards, which recognise the very best the international tolling industry has to offer, are open for submissions. The awards celebrate IBTTA member toll agencies whose creative, innovative, positive programs set a new standard of excellence. And this year, a new award has been created to recognise the contributions made by the private sector. Visit www.IBTTA.org/awards for submission guidelines and the agency and private sector submission forms.

Q-Free has received an extension order valued at US$1.9 million from the Swedish transport Administration (Trafikverket) for service and maintenance of the on-going Gothenburg congestion charging project. The order will be delivered within the end of 2017. Congestion charging was introduced in Gothenburg in 2013, with the Stockholm congestion charge as a model. The primary purpose of the congestion tax is to reduce traffic congestion and improve the environmental situation in central Gothenburg and to get f

The International Bridge, Toll and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) has applauded the Grow America Act 2.0 just released by the US Administration and US DOT. It says that once again, the Administration has boldly called for lifting the ban on Interstate tolling for the purpose of reconstruction, giving states greater flexibility to meet their challenging infrastructure and surface transportation needs. The six-year, US$478 is said to be US$126 billion more than current investment levels and US$238 billion mo

ASECAP, the association of European tolling companies, has published a report which outlines the challenges facing authorities and tolling companies in the European Union in complying with the Directives 2014/23/EU and 2014/24/EU. The new directives come into force in April 2016 and refine and strengthen the definition of a concession and establish procurement rules for contracting authorities in respect of public contracts. One of the key areas in defining a concession is that the concessionaire must b

New Zealand is to implement multi-lane free flow tolling on key routes in Tauranga later this year, with the installation of two high-tech electronic tolling gantries, each with 16 cameras, on Tauranga Eastern Link (TEL) and Route K. The cameras will capture an image of the vehicle’s front and rear registration plates using the latest optical character recognition technology. The cameras will read the registration plates and determine the size of the vehicle and whether it is a motorcycle, car, truck or

The Ho Chi Minh City-trung Luong highway connecting the city and the Mekong Delta province of Long An has become the first in Vietnam to be controlled by an intelligent transport system (ITS), says the Vietnam News Agency. The was implemented between April 2013 and December 2014 and was officially launched on 20 March, with a total investment of US$38.5 million, funded by preferential loans of the Republic of Korean Government and the Vietnamese Government budget. The system includes a smart control

Kenya plans to start tendering in May for toll-road contracts estimated by the government to be worth $2 billion to improve the efficiency of the East African nation’s biggest commercial routes, according to Bloomberg. The contracts will be in addition to the 45 deals worth about US$3.2 billion that the government will start awarding as early as next week, to double the nation’s paved-road network through an annuity program. The government is planning to introduce five toll projects covering about 800 kilom

Automatic Systems has been awarded a contract by Spanish toll roads manager Abertis Autopistas to supply 601 barriers for toll applications in Spain. Automatic Systems' BL 229 and BL 229 Toll barriers will be installed on the toll highway network in the Catalonia region and the highways around Barcelona, Girona and Tarragona. Delivery of the barriers is expected to be completed by July this year. "Automatic Systems has been working directly with Abertis Autopistas since 2013 in various highway toll projects