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The International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) has awarded the Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) of Dubai the prestigious 2014 Toll Excellence Award in Technology for its expansion of the Salik toll system, implemented by TransCore. The award was presented at IBTTA’s 82nd annual meeting in Austin, Texas. Already home to the world’s widest open-road tolling zone spanning seven lanes in a single direction, RTA’s objectives were to reduce growing traffic congestion, encourage use of alte

The Kentucky-Indiana Joint Board has unanimously selected Kapsch TrafficCom as the preliminary preferred proposer in the competition to provide an electronic toll system for the bi-state Ohio River Bridges project. The board’s action followed independent staff reviews of technical and financial proposals submitted by the competing firms. Kapsch was one of six interested companies that the board in January deemed qualified to submit proposals for the toll system provider (TSP) contract. The Indiana Fin

Canadian researchers Olivier Quirion-Blais, Martin Trépanier and André Langevin have developed an algorithm to determine the most efficient routes for snow ploughs and gritters. Snow plough routing has always been something of a ‘black art’: to direct a fleet of show plough to clear priority roads without having the same road cleared several times while others are left untreated. Increasingly, GPS is being used to track the routes the clearing vehicles have taken but until now it has not been possible to ta

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,

Arno Klamminger and Wolfgang Fleischer from Kapsch’s ETC Business Unit outline a new back office solution which addresses the ongoing changes in the road user charging sector. The rapidly increasing scale of some Road User Charging (RUC) schemes, both current and proposed, presents systems developers and manufacturers with significant opportunities in terms of product sales. However, it also presents them with significant challenges - and size is but one part – as at regional, national and international lev

David Crawford looks at camera-based vulnerable road users protection systems.Safe and efficient operation of road-based transit depends on minimising the risks of incidents involving other vehicles or vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and passengers boarding or alighting from buses or trams. The extent and quality of the visibility available to drivers is crucial in preventing and avoiding incidents. Conventionally, they have had to rely on fairly basic equipment - essentially the human

Hong Kong- listed property development Group Shanghai Zendai is to construct a US$7.66 billion new Modderfontein City in South Africa beginning in 2015. The project includes construction of a university, schools and a contemporary African gallery. Development of infrastructure, among them a Gautrain station planned for the next four to five years, is part of construction works awarded about US$273 million. The new city comes about as a result of the need for access to information technology (IT) and inte

According to a recent poll by infrastructure group HNTB, 79 per cent of US residents would support "would support the addition of a toll on a non-tolled surface transportation facility if it resulted in a safer, congestion-free and more reliable trip." The poll also found 83 per cent of its respondents would also support tolls on highways that are currently free, which has been a source of contentious debate in Washington. HNTB Toll Services Chairman Jim Ely said the finding bolstered the argument o

A widespread congestion-busting road improvement programme worth hundreds of millions of pounds has now tackled 39 bottlenecks, with more than another 80 to be completed in the next seven months. According to the Highways Agency, the US$515 million ‘pinch point’ programme will cut congestion, increase safety and improve journey times and help support the creation of 300,000 new jobs and 144,000 homes. The improvement plans, part of the biggest programme of road enhancements since the 1970s, were dra

Caldecott Tunnel’s new Fourth Bore is utilising a bespoke high-capacity monitoring and communications network from Moxa. The Caldecott Tunnel connects Contra Costa and Alameda counties in Northern California and traditionally it has suffered severe congestion - especially during peak hours. Opened in 1937 as a twin-bore arrangement, by 1964 the increase in traffic volumes led to a third bore being added. Shortly after the third bore was opened a tidal flow was introduced with the centre bore alternating in

In an order worth US280,000, Sensys Traffic is to supply an undisclosed customer in the US with speed in red light monitoring systems The order has been placed by Sensys' partner in the USA, Sensys America and delivery is planned to take place over the course of the current year.

Interoperable CCTV can provide early warning of problems and help improve traffic management and incident response as Morteza Fahrtash and Carlos Ortiz explain. California’s transportation system is one of the state’s defining features and Caltrans (California Department of Transportation) strives to improving mobility across the state through the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the network of highway, freeways, toll roads and expressways.

Brazil's transport ministry has approved a plan from mining and transport company Vale to carry out US$4.68 billion in railway infrastructure works. The project falls under the country's northern region logistics program and will facilitate transport of production from Vale's (US$17.6 billion Carajás Serra Sul iron ore project (S11D) which begins in 2015. Civil works will take place along Pará state's Sudeste railway network, connecting S11D to the Carajás railroad, which links to the Ponta da Madeira

Transport engineers and planners in the USA and Australia are set to benefit from innovative road striping and traffic management design software previously only available in the UK. UK company Keysoft Solutions’ new AutoStripe application has been developed by Keysoft Solutions to enable users to design road markings quickly and efficiently in AutoCAD. AutoStripe is based on the developers’ popular KeyLines software extensively used in the UK but has been adapted specifically to comply with North Ame

Robert Poole, co-founder of the Reason Foundation, has worked on transportation policy for more than three decades and is an influential voice on tolling, congestion pricing and infrastructure finance. Writing in his monthly newsletter (link http://reason.org/news/show/surface-transportation-news-131) he voices his scepticism of vehicle to vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technology which may one day allow cars to communicate with each other and with traffic infrastructure to avoid colli

With more than seven million tolling tags nearing the end of their life, delegates to ITS Australia’s 2014 National Electronic Tolling Conference had more than a passing interest debating possible ways forward. Rex Wright, chair of the Australian Toll Road Users’ Group, said the industry was potentially facing an AUD$100million bill over the next five years but the toll operators are committed to a unified national approach, consistent with the current interoperability.

ST Electronics (Info-Comm Systems) and IBM Singapore have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate and explore opportunities to leverage transport data analytics to promote smarter mobility. The MOU will enable both companies to develop a mutually beneficial partnership into new strategic growth areas in transport data analytics for exchange technical dialogue around their products and capabilities, specifically on the use of smart analytics for urban mobility solutions. They will explo

The Navegantes international airport in Brazil's Santa Catarina state is to be expanded under the federal government's regional plan. The goal is to convert it into a multimodal terminal for cargo and passengers to complement port logistics in the area, civil aviation minister Wellington Moreira Franco said during a meeting with state mayors.

As transportation industry experts from around the world gather in Austin, Texas for the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association’s 82nd Annual Meeting and Exhibition, 14-17 September, infrastructure solutions firm HNTB Corporation announces the results of a new America THINKS tolling survey, including the public’s views on tolling in the State. According to the survey, close to three in four (73 per cent) Texans who regularly drive on roads or bridges with tolls are pleased with the value

The European Commission has released US$15.3 billion of EU funding to improve European transport connections and invited Member States to propose suitable projects to use the funding. Proposals must be submitted by 26 February 2015. EU financing for transport has tripled to US$33.6 billion for the period 2014-2020, compared to US$10.3 billion for 2007-2013, under the new Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). This is the first tranche of the new funding for transport to be made available. The funding will