Skip to main content

TransCore wins contract on new HOV to Express lane conversion

California’s Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) has launched the first phase of its 290km conversion of high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes to Express Lanes, or commonly known as high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes, with TransCore serving as lead integrator for the project. The US$11.8 million programme comes at a crucial time in Silicon Valley as it prepares for an expected 38 per cent growth in population over the next 20 years and funding for transportation improvements is projected to grow at
April 3, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
RSSCalifornia’s 1791 Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) has launched the first phase of its 290km conversion of high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes to Express Lanes, or commonly known as high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes, with 139 Transcore serving as lead integrator for the project. The US$11.8 million programme comes at a crucial time in Silicon Valley as it prepares for an expected 38 per cent growth in population over the next 20 years and funding for transportation improvements is projected to grow at only a fraction of that amount.

VTA is implementing the Silicon Valley Express Lanes programme to provide congestion relief in one of its major Bay Area commuter corridors. As part of the programme, the SR 237, U.S. 101, SR 85 and parts of I-680 corridor will convert the existing HOV lanes to express lanes.

The first phase of the project focused on the intersect of the major north to south interstate I-880, from Oakland south into San Jose, with SR 237, the east to west freeway. Carpools as well as clean air vehicles, motorcycles, and transit buses will continue to use the lanes free of charge. Express Lane fees will be collected electronically using the radio frequency identification (RFID)-based electronic toll collection technology already in use on the San Francisco Bay Area Bridges and elsewhere in California. Enforcement will be provided by the 1855 California Highway Patrol.

“TransCore’s traffic engineering experience combined with our knowledge implementing every aspect of electronic toll collection, from system integration to manufacturing RFID technology, allowed us to tackle challenging design aspects that VTA faced and develop a solution that addresses the traffic concerns experienced in this corridor,” explained Michael Mauritz, TransCore managing director for the Western region.

Nationally, TransCore has supported HOT lane deployments on America’s first HOT installation on I-15 in San Diego as well as Houston Metro’s deployment earlier in the year, Miami’s I-95 Express, Seattle’s SR 167, and Salt Lake City’s I-15.

Related Content

  • April 23, 2013
    TransCore wins Virginia ATM contract
    The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has selected TransCore to design and build its I-66 ATM (Active Traffic Management) system on northern Virginia’s main highway into the District of Columbia - one of Virginia’s most congested interstates.
  • July 18, 2012
    Florida's high occupancy tolling success in reducing congestion
    TransCore's David Sparks writes about the development of 95 Express, Florida Department of Transportation's new high-occupancy tolling facility. High-Occupancy Tolling (HOT) lanes are one of the most compelling uses of existing transportation infrastructure to expand capacity, particularly in major metropolitan areas which have limited right of way but need to relieve congestion. According to the Federal Highway Administration, while vehicle miles travelled have increased over 70 per cent in the past 20 yea
  • April 17, 2012
    Toll plaza conversion will reduce congestion on I-95
    In an effort to reduce congestion in a busy corridor for motorists and commercial freight carriers, Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) appointed TransCore as the lead integrator on a project to convert the Newark Toll Plaza on I-95, adding two new electronic highway speed lanes on both the north and south bound plazas. Plaza throughput is now about to jump from 250-300 transactions per lane per hour to an estimated 2,000. The US$32 million “shovel ready” project was fully funded through the Amer
  • 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