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

  • Efkon wins six new ITS contracts in India
    May 23, 2012
    Austrian company Efkon has announced that its Efkon India subsidiary has won six prestigious ITS projects, worth a total of US$12.65 million, in the last five months. The Jaypee Group has awarded the company a follow-up contract for a turnkey solution for the expressway traffic management and speed enforcement systems for the Yamuna expressway in the south of New Delhi. Efkon is providing a single interface solution for all the sub-systems which enables information capture of all expressway activities and c
  • Anywhere card delivers prepaid contactless ticketing
    January 25, 2012
    David Crawford investigates a far reaching initiative in integrated travel. The Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO), an operator of high speed commuter rail in the north eastern US, is not one of the world's best known transit providers. Its 13 stations along a single east-west route (three of them interchanges with other regional commuter lines) handle 40,000 passengers a day, travelling to and from Philadelphia, the US' fifth most populous city.
  • TransCore scoops Miami toll systems contracts
    August 1, 2013
    TransCore is to convert legacy automatic vehicle identification (AVI) toll systems to SunPass interoperable and toll-by-plate all electronic toll systems on three causeways in Miami-Dade County in the US. The contract, worth around US$13 million, includes the Broad Causeway for the town of Bay Harbor Islands and the Rickenbacker and Venetian Causeways for the Miami-Dade County, all to be operable by spring 2014. For the town of Bay Harbor Islands, TransCore will convert a bi-directional cash toll plaza to
  • Q-Free sees logic in video tolling
    September 15, 2014
    Q-Free’s Frank Kjelsli talks to Colin Sowman about why video tolling could be the boost to efficiency and interoperability the industry is seeking. Like it or not, the principal of one person, one tolling account is likely to become a reality: be that in America with the 2016 interoperability deadline or the European EETS requirement. Multi-tag readers are being introduced and alliances are being formed to meet legislative requirements but as the debate continues about which systems and protocols to adopt,