The Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) is implementing ambitious improvements to the electronic toll collection (ETC) system that it will implement on 84 miles of toll road in the area of Houston, TX, USA. 32 miles of new toll road had to be equipped, and existing ETC facilities had to be upgraded. To address these needs, the HCTRA completed a total system retrofit with non-stop ETC for the new toll road, while improving service on its existing toll roads. HCTRA set up a partnership with HNTB Corporation to develop a system which aimed to: (1) provide high-speed ETC at six existing and three new barrier plazas; (2) ensure toll tag compatibility across the system; (3) reduce delays in manual collection and automatic coin machine (ACM) lanes; (4) realise easier maintenance and greater control over future toll system upgrades; and (5) assess ETC needs. HNTB found that the existing ETC equipment could be retained, but that the lane controllers would be replaced and upgraded to provide better service. The two innermost lanes will handle only traffic with automatic vehicle identification (AVI), the middle lanes will have ACMs, and the outermost lane will have mixed use. A segmented procurement process led to a total cost of awarded contract which was substantially less than the originally estimated cost.
Abstract