Charging, Tolling & Road Pricing

Geoff Hadwick attended ASECAP’s 2015 Study Days meeting in Lisbon and found a frustrated European tolling sector undertaking some soul searching. The international road tolling industry its failing to make it case and the sector is losing out to a range of other socio-political lobby groups according to International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) chief executive Pat Jones. Speaking at the recent 2015 ASECAP Study Days conference in Lisbon, Jones issued a stark warning: “Tolling is still o

IBTTA volunteers restore and upgrade facilities at an Oklahoma boys home during its annual Maintenance & Roadway Operations Workshop. Oklahoma receives an average of 55 tornado strikes each year. Some are small; others are huge and violent. All inspire fear. “It sounded like a freight train was headed for my house.” That’s how people often describe the sound they hear just befo

Kapsch TrafficCom has been awarded the contract to expand the BelToll toll road network in Belarus by an additional 323 kilometres, in line with the government’s long-term infrastructure development program. Kapsch is both developer and operator of the toll collection system under a twenty-year contract. Many recently upgraded and reconstructed roads throughout the whole country will be affected by the BelToll extension, as well as parts of the M5 and M6 highways. When the extension is completed, the tol

Drivers in the Washington DC area are realising time savings following the opening of Express Lanes on the I-95 - and not only those paying to use the new facility. Washington is ranked as being the worst gridlocked city in the United States. Every day its drivers face an average commute time of 39.5 minutes and they waste an average of 67 hours every year just sitting in traffic. In a move to counter these problems, late last December new Express Lanes were opened along 46.6km (29 miles) of the I-95 betwee

The Sault Ste Marie International Bridge, which connects Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, and Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, is opening new toll lanes and upgrading its system with new software and new frequent user discounts. The International Bridge Authority (IBA) began opening the new lanes this week as part of a US$7 million project undertaken in coordination with the Mackinac Bridge Authority and the Michigan portion of the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron. The toll software upgrades, which are necessary be

Portuguese motorways operator Ascendi has awarded Q-Free a US$19 million contract for the renewal and extension of service and maintenance of several of the Ascendi multi-lane free flow toll (MLFF) concessions for a further six years. Ascendi is said to be the largest European private operator, providing automatic vehicle classification of four vehicle classes including HGVs and light passenger vehicles. The company has 128 collection points installed and processes around one million transactions per da

China is considering regulations that would allow road operators to levy a toll on users beyond the current 15 to 30-year limit, according to Bloomberg. The plan would potentially boost an industry that has been plagued by losses as companies struggle to earn enough to cover their debt and operating costs. “The extension of the tolling period can help to woo private investors into highway development,” said Zhu Haibin, chief China economist at JPMorgan Chase in Hong Kong. The plan shows the government’s

US-based Gila is to partner with Kapsch TraffiCom on an electronic toll collection system (ETCS) operations and maintenance contract for the toll roads owned and operated by the Puerto Rico Highways and Transportation Authority (PRHTA) and Autopistas Metropolitanas of Puerto Rico (Metropistas, an Abertis-Goldman Sachs consortium). The PRHTA selected Gila to provide comprehensive program management services including customer service centre management and operations for all toll roads within the island ne