Skip to main content

A Texas star for ViaPlus

Firm will provide number-plate imaging in Houston for Harris County’s toll authority
By David Arminas May 13, 2024 Read time: 2 mins
Contract takes in free-flow highways in and around Houston (© Bryan Roschetzky | Dreamstime.com)

ViaPlus has been selected by Harris County Toll Road Authority in Texas to provide image review services on the free-flow highways in and around Houston.

The 19-month base contract includes four one-year extension options and will start after an implementation period of seven to nine months for software configuration, staffing and services.

Harris County Toll Road Authority’s free-flow system includes the taking of licence plate images for toll invoicing. Through the contract, ViaPlus will provide automatic and manual processing of these images.

Overall, ViaPlus will optimise the image review process with its optical character recognition software and machine learning algorithms and will manually review any outstanding post-processed transactions. Together these modules deliver the highest efficacy for revenue capture in a video tolling system and will contribute to the smooth operation of the authority’s free-flow electronic tolling operations.

With this new contract, ViaPlus strengthens its position in Texas, noted Richard Arce, chief executive of ViaPlus, part of Vinci Highways. The contract adds to its portfolio of free-flow services in Dallas, Austin, Rancho Viejo and Pharr. Total ViaPlus transactions in the state exceeded 1.35 billion in 2023.

“We are eager to continue scaling our operations in Texas with our full range of mobility solutions,” he said “Texas is a leader in modern and large-scale highway networks and supporting the authority’s video toll programme demonstrates the strategic initiatives of ViaPlus and Vinci Highways to grow mobility operations in and around the state.”

ViaPlus specialises in revenue and services management solutions. Its customer operations, data analytics and full-featured, single-account back-office technology help manage high-volume transactions required for seamless multimodal mobility.

Vinci Highways, a Vinci Concessions subsidiary, designs, finances, builds and operates highways, bridges, tunnels, urban roads and mobility services along 3,140km in 14 countries.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Virginia presses ahead with tunnels upgrade despite tolls challenge
    July 30, 2013
    David Crawford reviews current developments and legal/financial issues facing tunnel management in Virginia. This autumn the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) in the US will defend its plan to introduce tolling on the Elizabeth River tunnels linking the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth in the State’s Hampton Roads area. The tolling, which is due to start from February 2014, will be examined by the State’s Supreme Court later this year. The anticipated toll income, along with loans and bonds, is
  • TransCore develops nearly 100 miles of express lanes in Dallas/Fort Worth
    November 8, 2016
    TransCore is in the midst of deploying over 100 miles of express lanes throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, as part of an initiative to increase mobility along the region’s busiest corridors. With 34 lanes already operational, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) plans to mark the 100-mile milestone by the end of 2018.
  • Toll performance exceeds expectations, improves travel times
    January 30, 2012
    Jean Harito, Attica Tollway Operations Authority and Steve Morello, Egis Projects describe how looking to exceed contractual obligations makes good operational and business sense. The Attica Tollway is a modern, 65km, access-controlled urban motorway with three lanes in each direction. It constitutes the ring road around the extensive metropolitan area of the Greek capital, Athens, and forms the backbone of the entire road network in the Attica region. By ensuring freeflow operating conditions, the Attica T
  • Machine vision’s image of road management’s future
    June 11, 2015
    Q-Free’s Marco Sinnema looks at how the commoditisation of high-quality vision-based solutions is widening their application. Machine vision technology’s entry into the ITS/traffic management sector has followed a classic top-down path. This is unsurprising given the extremely demanding performance criteria which are the standard in its market of origin, manufacturing processing. Very high image qualities combined with frame rates often in the hundreds per second range resulted in vision systems with capabi