Skip to main content

Dubai’s Salik toll system wins International Toll Excellence Award

The International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) has awarded the Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) of Dubai the prestigious 2014 Toll Excellence Award in Technology for its expansion of the Salik toll system, implemented by TransCore. The award was presented at IBTTA’s 82nd annual meeting in Austin, Texas. Already home to the world’s widest open-road tolling zone spanning seven lanes in a single direction, RTA’s objectives were to reduce growing traffic congestion, encourage use of alte
September 16, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
RSSThe International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (63 IBTTA) has awarded the Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) of Dubai the prestigious 2014 Toll Excellence Award in Technology for its expansion of the 1700 Salik toll system, implemented by 139 TransCore. The award was presented at IBTTA’s 82nd annual meeting in Austin, Texas.

Already home to the world’s widest open-road tolling zone spanning seven lanes in a single direction, RTA’s objectives were to reduce growing traffic congestion, encourage use of alternative routes, and maintain open lane operations during maintenance and future expansions.

TransCore designed the original Salik toll system in 2006. For the expansion project, the Nashville-based company constructed three additional electronic tolling locations, consisting of six new toll gates and added several feature enhancements, including: above ground equipment using an innovative gantry design to reduce the effects of direct sunlight and protect against adverse wind conditions; real-time image processing over seven lanes of traffic to capture images of all vehicles travelling up to and in excess of 140 kph; and a sophisticated power system to ensure reliability during power or network failure.

The system expansion now enables the toll system to process more than three million transactions each day and traffic volumes have reduced up to 22 per cent during peak travel times, achieving the goals of the expansion.

“Our decision to first implement and then expand a free-flow toll system mirrors a trend around the globe to manage congestion through technology and likewise support economic growth throughout the Emirate,” said engineer and chief executive officer for the RTA Maitha Bin Adai.

“RTA had the foresight to provide a free-flowing, electronic tolling solution that can accommodate Dubai’s growing population,” said Karim Rizkallah, managing director, TransCore Middle East. “We are honoured to be their technology partner and congratulate them on this recognition from IBTTA.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • IR’s invisible benefit for traffic surveillance and enforcement
    June 30, 2016
    Advances in vision technology are enhancing traffic surveillance and enforcement applications. Variable lighting conditions have long been a stumbling block for vision technology applications in the transport sector. With applications such as ANPR, the read-rate may vary between daylight and night and can be adversely affected by glare and low sun. Madrid, Spain-based Lector Vision had these considerations in mind when designing its Traffic Eye ANPR system, which combines off-the-shelf and custom hardware
  • Taiwan to go all-electronic free flow tolling
    November 28, 2013
    Taiwan’s 900 kilometres of toll roads will transition to all-electronic free flow operations early next year. The roads, which include three north-south routes with 22 toll points, carry out around 1.7 million transactions a day, generating some US$700 million of annual toll revenue. Private contractor Far Eastern Electronic Toll Collection Company (FETC), under contract to the National Freeway Bureau to collect the tolls, says that the IR-based toll system worked well and some 43 per cent of transactio
  • IBTTA explains INVEST in America Act 2021
    June 23, 2021
    Mark Muriello, IBTTA director of policy & government affairs, outlines some of the key tolling points of the US House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee’s INVEST in America Act 2021
  • Detection analysis technology successfully predicts traffic flows
    February 3, 2012
    David Crawford investigates new detection analysis technology from IBM. Locations on both the East and West Coasts of the US are scheduled for early deployments of IBM's new Traffic Prediction Tool (TPT) statistical analysis model for the fine-time resolution and near-term prediction of road flow conditions. Developed by IBM's Watson Research Laboratories, TPT is designed to analyse data from the the key detection indicators - average vehicle volumes and speeds passing a location in a given time interval -