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

  • Cooperative infrastructure - the future for tolling?
    February 2, 2012
    Leading European tolling solution providers give a snapshot of how they think tolling's technological future will look
  • Golden Gate Bridge to debut all-electronic tolling
    March 11, 2013
    After two years of planning, all-electronic tolling will begin on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge on 27 March. In 2011, when the bridge district was facing a five-year shortfall of US$89 million, the Highway and Transportation District approved a plan to pursue all-electronic tolling as a cost-saving measure. The district will trim its expenses by US$16 million over the next decade as a result of the new system. According to bridge district spokeswoman Mary Currie, the bridge will be the first in Califo
  • Use tolling to help rebuild interstate highways
    August 21, 2014
    Following the passage of the short-term Highway Trust Fund bill, Patrick Jones, CEO of the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association, writing in Roll Call, writes that states should now be focused on capitalising on a key part of the Grow America Act, which will lift the ban on interstate tolling, allowing states to determine how to fund reconstruction of interstate highways. He says that now that Congress has ‘patched’ the Highway Trust Fund to save it from insolvency, it is time to get some
  • Growth of outsourcing simplifies transportation operations
    June 11, 2012
    Xerox Chairman and CEO Ursula Burns will deliver the keynote address at the opening plenary of ITS America’s 2012 Annual Meeting in May. She talked to ITS International about the acquisition of ACS, its rebranding and the importance of the transportation sector to Xerox