Skip to main content

Free-flow toll systems lower operational risks says road operator

Multi-lane free-flow toll systems lower the operational risk of highway concessions, according to toll road operator Renovias Concessionária, which implemented the first such system in Brazil. "Operational risk is lower than manned toll booths as no workers are needed," Renovias maintenance manager Michell Costa told BNamericas. The system in place on São Paulo state highway SP340 detects the electronic fee collection tags in vehicles using both 5.8GHz and 915MHz frequencies, and captures front and re
April 23, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Multi-lane free-flow toll systems lower the operational risk of highway concessions, according to toll road operator Renovias Concessionária, which implemented the first such system in Brazil.

"Operational risk is lower than manned toll booths as no workers are needed," Renovias maintenance manager Michell Costa told BNamericas.

The system in place on São Paulo state highway SP340 detects the electronic fee collection tags in vehicles using both 5.8GHz and 915MHz frequencies, and captures front and rear license plates with optical character recognition (OCR) cameras.

Renovias, which manages 346 kilometres of state roads, took the system live in 2013. It serves more than 2.25 million residents in the Campinas metropolitan region.

Costa said that toll payment evasion is the main reason why free-flow toll systems have not taken off in Brazil as much as in the Chilean capital of Santiago, where they have been in place since 2005.

The four main toll operators in Santiago – Vespucio Norte, Autopista Central, Costanera Norte and Vespucio Sur – recorded a total of US$320 million in delinquent toll payments in 2014, as drivers modify or remove license plates, or refuse to sign up for tags or purchase a daily pass.

Related Content

  • Growth of ANPR applications for enforcement, tolling and more
    February 1, 2012
    Automatic number plate recognition continues to find new applications beyond the traditional. In coming years, we can expect the application set to grow significantly Moore's Law has seen to it that computer processing power has improved out of all comparison in the 30-plus years since the first working Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system was created by the UK's Police Scientific Development Branch. The attendant increases in systems' capabilities have resulted in ANPR being deployed globally
  • Colombian government releases funds for road concessions
    September 25, 2013
    The Colombian government is to release funds of US$12.27 billion from the national budget for the Autopistas de la Prosperidad road programme, involving nine road concessions. Concession holders will invest US$7.4 billion into these projects; since monies from tolls will be insufficient to complete all works, the government will inject further funds of US$23.2 billion over the next decade. Ministers have stressed the importance of this road infrastructure and the need to speed up the process. This news
  • Aselsan demonstrates tolling and traffic management pedigree
    October 6, 2015
    Turkey-based tolling specialist Aselsan is aiming to create a big impact here in Bordeaux with advanced solutions for toll collection, integrated traffic management, vehicle recognition, tracking and enforcement. As the company points out, it has been providing toll collection and traffic management systems since the late 1980s. Indeed, Aselsan can point to a strong record of innovation and success and has won international recognition for several of its proven solutions that enable integrated traffic cont
  • Tecsidel’s Pan-American Highway tunnel eases Lima’s traffic woes
    December 4, 2018
    The Pan-American Highway connects the US and Canada with Latin America, running for thousands of miles from Alaska in the north to Argentina in the south. Mauro Nogarin finds that one tunnel built underneath it is now providing relief for thousands of travellers each day On the Pan-American Highway, the lengthy series of roads which spans both American continents - from the US state of Alaska to the Latin American country of Argentina - ITS solutions are many and varied. One of these, in Peru’s capital