Skip to main content

Three for Q-Free in the US

Kinetic Mobility will be used in Denver, Washington DC and Dallas-Fort Worth
By David Arminas May 1, 2025 Read time: 3 mins
Rush hour on the Capital Beltway (© Thomas Carter | Dreamstime.com)

Q-Free has secured the first US contracts for its Kinetic Mobility advanced traffic management system.

The company, a provider of mobility solutions for smart city infrastructure, said the contracts cover three major metropolitan areas. One is with Transurban’s 95, 395 and Capital Beltway (495) Express Lanes near Washington, DC.

Another is the E-470 Public Highway Authority’s toll road on the eastern perimeter of Denver city in Colorado. 

The third is Cintra’s Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) Express and North Tarrant Express Lanes in the heart of the Dallas-Fort Worth region in Texas.

“Streamlining our tolling systems help us better serve our customers, enabling faster, more reliable trips for travellers in Northern Virginia,” said Beau Memory, president of tolling provider Transurban North America. “Innovative solutions are one way we keep traffic moving and connect people, places and progress.”

“Winning these contracts is a significant milestone for Q-Free,” said Whitney Nottage, executive vice president for traffic management at Q-Free. “Kinetic Mobility sets a new standard for toll road management by providing a fully integrated, scalable solution that simplifies operations, enhances efficiency and provides a better experience for toll operators and road users.”

The Transurban deployment on the 95, 395 and Capital Beltway (495) Express Lanes near Washington, DC, is currently underway and will be the first deployment of Kinetic Mobility on a toll road in the US. The 95/395 Express Lanes constitute the longest reversible road in the country and need intense traffic management to maintain safety.

The Transurban contract award is for 12 years and includes deployment and maintenance of Kinetic Mobility, covering just over 105km (65 miles) of roads with 298 gates, 22 gantries and 349 detection points. Q-Free said that the partnership is especially meaningful because it builds on its long-standing collaboration with Transurban on multiple projects in Australia.

Q-Free’s contract for the E-470 Public Highway Authority’s toll road in Denver covers 75km (47 miles) of toll road and over 130 ITS devices and equipment.

The project, if the Authority exercises contract options, will last through 2030. The partnership could allow for enhanced traffic incident management coordination with both the Authority and the Colorado Department of Transportation using the same ATMS.

Q-Free’s work with tolling operator Cintra is to replace its existing ATMS with Kinetic Mobility on the Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) Express and North Tarrant Express lanes that serve major thoroughfares along two of the busiest highway corridors in northern Texas. The contract includes initial deployment and five years of operations and maintenance covering around 87km (54 miles) of toll roads.

“Partnering with major industry leaders like Transurban, the E-470 Public Highway Authority, and Cintra underscores the value and innovation our platform brings to the tolling sector,” said Mark Talbot, CEO of Q-Free.

Related Content

  • October 7, 2013
    North Florida signals coordinated approach to congestion management
    David Crawford investigates innovative congestion management in Florida. The largest US city by area is well into the implementation of an ambitious congestion management system (CMS) on the scale of those of higher-profile centres such as Seattle and San Francisco. Regional agency the North Florida Transportation Planning Organisation (NFTPO) aims to ensure that commuters on major highways in Jacksonville can rely on a minimum 72km/h (45mph) driving speed in normal conditions.
  • May 30, 2014
    US eyes European model for Illinois toll road upgrade
    David Crawford welcomes the adoption of European-style ITS technology by the US. The Jane Addams Memorial Tollway in Illinois, US is well on the way towards becoming a ‘smart traffic corridor’, taking full advantage of active traffic management (ATM or ‘managed lanes’) technology that originated in Europe. It is one of the first American toll roads to do so; preliminary work began in 2014 and will continue through to 2016. Jane Addams is one of four toll roads operated by the publicly-owned Illinois State T
  • June 1, 2015
    Fluor JV to build Texas expressway
    A Fluor-led joint venture, Colorado River Constructors, a partnership with Balfour Beatty Infrastructure, has been awarded a four-year design-build contract by the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority to provide design and construction services valued at US$581 million for the Bergstrom Expressway Project located in Austin, Texas. According to Fluor, the project provides the most significant improvements to the US Highway 183 corridor since the mid-1960s. The joint venture will design and reconst
  • June 17, 2016
    Joining old and new in Canada’s Highway 407
    David Arminas visits Canada’s Highway 407 ETR to see how the concession is working and hear about new arrangements for the roadway’s extension. The Toronto region is North America’s eighth largest metropolitan area and its roads become notoriously congested. In 1997 Highway 407, a 68km concrete toll motorway which skirts the northern edge of Toronto, was opened and initially operated by the province and CHIC - a consortium of four leading Ontario-based companies. Finance came from the Ontario Financing Auth