Skip to main content

Humber Bridge toll goes ORT

Civil engineering firm Britcon has completed works for a new US$8.8 million state-of-the-art toll collection facility on the Humber Bridge to replace the toll collection system which was installed in 1981. The new collection system will include one of the first open road tolling arrangement to be installed in the UK, where vehicles do not need to stop while driving through the toll plaza. Britcon undertook full infrastructure works for the project on behalf of Sociedad Ibérica de Construcciones Eléctrica
October 17, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Civil engineering firm Britcon has completed works for a new US$8.8 million state-of-the-art toll collection facility on the Humber Bridge to replace the toll collection system which was installed in 1981. The new collection system will include one of the first open road tolling arrangement to be installed in the UK, where vehicles do not need to stop while driving through the toll plaza.

Britcon undertook full infrastructure works for the project on behalf of Sociedad Ibérica de Construcciones Eléctricas (6770 SICE), a leading specialist consulting with the Humber Bridge Board on intelligent transport and environmental control systems. SICE is now progressing installation of the electronics and expects to complete the entire project by summer 2015.

Britcon was contracted to manage the decommissioning of the existing toll provision, supply and install a temporary toll system during the construction process and design and construct the new facility in its entirety. This included major alterations to the existing highway and open road toll lanes, construction of the toll plaza housing structures and collection system equipment.

The new facility will also reduce the number of booths from the existing six, to three in each direction with automatic barriers. The system uses the RFID-based 'HumberTag' that is read each time the customer passes through the toll booths, allowing them to drive straight through without interruption.

Britcon managing director, Paul Clarkson, said, “The existing toll collection system was installed in 1981 and as such the technology was becoming obsolete and high maintenance.

"The new and innovative collection system includes one of the first open-road tolling arrangements to be installed in the UK, where vehicles do not need to stop while driving through the toll plaza. They are billed through electronic methods via tags tied to a Humber Bridge toll account.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Tags or communication based toll payment systems?
    January 20, 2012
    Midland Expressway Ltd's Tom Fanning discusses deployment of Near Field Communicationbased payment on the M6 Toll facility The M6 Toll's introduction from early next year of Near Field Communication (NFC) is a pragmatic response to the relative scarcity of tolled facilities and the concomitant low levels of tag take-up in the UK, according to the road's operator, Midland Expressway Ltd (MEL). Nevertheless, Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC)-based tags operating at 5.8GHz are still a key part of the
  • Confusing funding and financing can be costly
    September 23, 2014
    Tolling may be the way forward for paying for the roads of the future - but where will concessionaires find the money and do they need funding or financing? Increasingly, governments around the world are concluding that they can no longer pay for new roads and are turning to the private sector for help.
  • Brazil opts for freeflow tolling
    April 9, 2014
    David Crawford explores the technical background of Brazil’s First multi-lane free-flow tolling system. The 2013 opening of Brazil’s first fully-operational, all-vehicle, multi-lane free-flow (MLFF) tolling system in the state of São Paolo has set the scene for a new phase of modern electronic fee collection (EFC) deployment in Latin America’s largest country. It has toll programmes at both federal and state levels, with São Paulo – the most populous state, with the largest road network – leading in the awa
  • Cellular communications drive the way forward for tolling
    January 18, 2012
    For more than 20 years prior to joining the ITS industry, Mike Payne of Idris, part of Federal Signal Technologies, worked for Vodafone - the world's biggest mobile operator. Here, he considers how the road tolling sector can grow and learn from the cellular industry. The global cellphone has been one of the most successful collaborative technology projects in the last 30 years. Mobile phone technology developed throughout the 20th century with the first public service in the early 70s. This was followed by