Skip to main content

Oklahoma Turnpike to go interoperable

Oklahoma Turnpike (OTA) is in discussion with Kansas Turnpike and North Texas Tollway (NTTA) on the viability of electronic interoperability between the three companies. It is close to agreement with North Texas Tollway and billing of each other’s customers should be in operation by the spring or summer of 2014. Discussions with the Kansas Turnpike are a little further behind and interoperability is likely to happen by the second half of 2014. Director of operations at the OTA, David Machamer, says much o
July 19, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
Oklahoma Turnpike (OTA) is in discussion with Kansas Turnpike and North Texas Tollway (2082 NTTA) on the viability of electronic interoperability between the three companies.  It is close to agreement with North Texas Tollway and billing of each other’s customers should be in operation by the spring or summer of 2014.  Discussions with the Kansas Turnpike are a little further behind and interoperability is likely to happen by the second half of 2014.

Director of operations at the OTA, David Machamer, says much of the work on the legal agreement and business rules for NTTA-OTA interoperability has been accomplished so they are close to going for formal board of directors approval.

There are few hardware issues. Both have E6 multiprotocol readers from 139 Transcore, as does Kansas Turnpike with its K-TAG brand.

The Oklahoma Turnpike system covers large proportion of the state's expressway standard highways, one a designated interstate but most important state routes.  Comprising ten tollroads some urban, others interurban the state turnpike system covers 605 centerline miles, about 1,000km. Toll collection is a mix of electronic toll, and cash toll lanes in an approximate 65/35 ratio.

NTTA is an entirely urban system with three major busy tollroads, two toll bridges and small toll tunnel.  It has no cash toll collection, 77 per cent being by electronic toll transponder and 23 per cent by video toll.

Machamer says interoperability with Kansas Turnpike to their immediate north should not be long after the NTTA arrangements go live.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • How British drivers compare in European responsible driving survey
    April 2, 2015
    With 16 million UK motorists set to take to the roads this Easter weekend, a new European survey finds that risky driving habits and failure to respect the rules are on the increase. The annual survey carried out for Vinci Autoroutes Foundation for Responsible Driving by IPSOS examined the behaviour of drivers from ten European countries. Each year, this survey draws up an inventory of driving practices and trends, allowing closer targeting of methods to prevent irresponsible driving and promote safer ro
  • The weighty problem of truck routing enforcement
    March 17, 2015
    The growing impact of heavy commercial vehicles on urban and interurban highway infrastructures around the world is driving the need for reliable route access restriction and monitoring. The support role of enforcement is proving fertile ground for ITS development. Bridges are especially vulnerable – and critical in terms of travel delays. The US state of Oregon’s Department of Transportation (ODOT) operates what it claims is one of the country’s most aggressive truck route restriction enforcement programme
  • IBTTA seeks transportation innovation
    December 16, 2016
    IBTTA’s Patrick Jones contemplates the need for, sources of and constraints on transportation innovation. For years now, visionary thinkers and doers in the highway transportation community have been laser-focused on the role of innovation in addressing the most pressing mobility challenges.
  • New Hampshire plans for tomorrow’s communication
    August 21, 2017
    Someone once likened predicting the future to ‘nailing a jelly to the wall’. With ITS, C-ITS and V2X technology progressing at such a pace, predicting the future is more akin to trying to nail three jellies to the wall – but only having one nail. And yet with roadways having a lifetime measured in decades, that is exactly what highway engineers and traffic planners are expected to do. Fortunately, New Hampshire DoT (NHDoT) believes its technological advances may be able to provide a solution. The Central Ne