Skip to main content

MassDOT to start all electronic tolling in October

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) is to move ahead with plans to completely demolish Interstate 90 toll plazas by the end of 2017 as a milestone in the state’s progress toward all electronic tolling (AET) along Interstate 90 (the Massachusetts Turnpike), the Tobin Bridge, and Boston tunnels. MassDOT has announced that AET will go live on 28 October and says the system will improve driver convenience and safety and reduce greenhouse gas-causing vehicle emissions. “When toll booths
August 25, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
The 7213 Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) is to move ahead with plans to completely demolish Interstate 90 toll plazas by the end of 2017 as a milestone in the state’s progress toward all electronic tolling (AET) along Interstate 90 (the Massachusetts Turnpike), the Tobin Bridge, and Boston tunnels.
 
MassDOT has announced that AET will go live on 28 October and says the system will improve driver convenience and safety and reduce greenhouse gas-causing vehicle emissions.  “When toll booths have been removed, AET will allow drivers to maintain regular highway speed as they pass under AET gantries, eliminating the need for drivers to sharply reduce speed and idle in toll booth lines.

MassDOT is working with the Executive Office of Public Safety to establish clear policies for the use and retention of AET data and is in discussions with public safety officials about the very limited circumstances in which AET-generated ‘hot list’ or other information could be used in the case of public safety emergencies.

MassDOT officials estimate that the agency will save about US$5 million in annual operating costs with AET.  The cost of designing and building the physical AET system is about US$130 million and toll plaza removal and reconstruction, excluding the Sumner Tunnel, will cost about US$133 million.

Related Content

  • July 30, 2013
    Virginia presses ahead with tunnels upgrade despite tolls challenge
    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
  • February 18, 2013
    Texas and Oklahoma toll systems to go interoperable in 2014
    Officials in Texas and Oklahoma say their electronic toll systems could be interoperable in 2014. Chairman of the Team Texas Interoperability Committee Clayton Howe says the exact timing will be up to Oklahoma to decide but indications are it could be up and running by the end of the year. Interoperability will mean Texans will be able to travel Oklahoma's turnpikes and receive their tolls on their Texas accounts. Similarly, Oklahoma drivers will be able to drive on Texas tollroads and be billed to their Ok
  • November 1, 2016
    TransCore to implement AET for New York bridges and tunnels
    New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has selected TransCore to convert all nine of its bridges and tunnels to all-electronic tolling (AET). Under an accelerated roll-out schedule, TransCore will finish converting the first three facilities by January 2017. The remaining conversions will be completed by November 2017. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo first announced the New York Crossings Project in October, as a broad initiative to reduce traffic congestion and decrease vehicle emissions
  • January 30, 2012
    Mounting benefits of dynamic tolling project
    Wisconsin's four-year HOT lanes pilot project, launched in May 2008, cost US$18.8 million to construct. Halfway into the project, which uses variably priced, or dynamic, tolling to improve highway efficiency, the benefits are mounting. The problem was obvious, and frustrating, to anyone who ever sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic on State Route 167 and watched a lone car whiz by every 20 seconds or so in the carpool lane. But for planners at the Washington State Department of Transportation, the conundrum was