Maine toll road evaluates AET

A new ten year plan released by the Maine Turnpike Authority defers decisions on work to upgrade its three largest toll plazas pending completion of a next generation toll collection study that will consider the costs and benefits of going all-electronic, versus open road electronic tolling (ORT) and cash and a timetable. Objections from local residents and the failure of the Turnpike to consider the alternative of all-electronic tolling (AET) led to the delay of a previous ten year plan in 2009 that set
December 19, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
A new ten year plan released by the Maine Turnpike Authority defers decisions on work to upgrade its three largest toll plazas pending completion of a next generation toll collection study that will consider the costs and benefits of going all-electronic, versus open road electronic tolling (ORT) and cash and a timetable.

Objections from local residents and the failure of the Turnpike to consider the alternative of all-electronic tolling (AET) led to the delay of a previous ten year plan in 2009 that set 2011 as the year for start on rebuild of the main south-end toll plaza designed to be an ORT plus cash plaza.  

April this year saw the beginning of ORT in some areas of the toll road and other ORT conversions of central lanes are planned, keeping some cash collection to each side. The cash toll collection system meanwhile is being replaced.

Cash continues to be the payment mode for some 37 per cent of transactions, and similar for Maine E-ZPass. The major growth in electronic tolling has come from travellers from outside with non-Maine E-ZPass transponders, now generating 25 per cent of transactions.

The new US$258m million ten year capital plan has US$123 million budgeted for bridge rehabilitation, US$70 million for pavement rehabilitation, $21 million for interchange improvements and US$19 million for immediate toll system upgrades.
Charging, Tolling & RUC

Related Content

  • Xerox counts on machine vision for high occupancy enforcement
    October 29, 2014
    Machine vision techniques can provide solutions to some of the traffic planners most enduring problems With a high proportion of cars being occupied by the driver alone, one of the easiest, most environmentally friendly and cheapest methods of reducing congestion is to encourage more people to travel in each vehicle. So to persuade people to share rides, high occupancy lanes were devised to prioritise vehicles with (typically) three of more people on board and in some areas these vehicles are exempt from
    Read More
  • Making the most of Michigan
    January 9, 2018
    Michigan DoT’s Kirk Steudle takes time out from the ITS World Congress in Montreal to talk to Colin Sowman. Thirty years ago, a professional engineer named Kirk Steudle joined Michigan Department of Transportation (MDoT). Today he’s the state transportation director, responsible for more than 16,000km (10,000 miles) of state highways (including 4,000 bridges), some 2,500 employees and a budget of more than $4 billion. We caught up with Steudle during the ITS World Congress in Montreal and asked how he
    Read More
  • Infrastructure spending is an investment in economic recovery
    January 20, 2012
    Transportation funding is caught in the crossfire as the President calls for infrastructure investment and a reinvigorated Republican majority in the House pushes back on federal spending. Andrew Bardin Williams reports. Every few months some politician or pundit declares that the country is on the verge of making the most important political decision in a generation. The 2006 mid-term election; the 2008 Presidential election; the passing of the stimulus bill; healthcare reform; the mania surrounding Tea Pa
    Read More
  • A fresh approach to electronic fee collection
    July 16, 2012
    The Utah Transit Authority (UTA) is pioneering fresh approaches to Electronic Fee Collection (EFC) deployment in the US. Its new system, operational since January 2009 on all buses and commuter trains, is the country's first full-network rollout of transit e-ticketing technology built on an open-payment network, according to the organisation's Technology Programme Development Manager Craig Roberts.
    Read More

Highlighted Content