TransCore has won a contract from TxDOT for half a million of their 'eGo-Plus' sticker tags. The contract provides for sale to TxDOT of up to two million total tags over two years. The sticker tags which will cost about $9 each will be the only transponder issued by the Texas Turnpike Authority Division (TTAD) of TxDOT when the Central Texas TX130/TX54N/Loop-1 network of tollroads opens in ther second half of 2007.

This is the biggest order yet for sticker tags for tolling. They are already in use in Puerto Rico on the island's four tollroads and in Georgia on Atlanta's GA400. They are in use on a smallscale - so far anyway - at border crossings in Shenzhen China, and on the US-Mexico border by the US Customs and Border Protection Agency. TransCore says one million sticker tags are now in use worldwide.

The Central Texas sticker tag contract is featured on TransCore's website. TxDOT has issued no news of the contract. However an official at the Turnpike Division confirmed it, and told us they would be issuing sticker tags exclusively. They are considering a policy of giving them away in order to minimize cash toll collection, but there's no decision yet on that.

The supply of the $9 sticker tags is at the expense of the standard Amtech ATA protocol tags as normally supplied in Texas. These hardcased transponders sell at about $25 each. The sticker tags will be brandnamed TxTag.

The Central Texas three tollroad project will be using a dual protocol reader in toll lanes so that both ATA and eGo tags can be read. There are 2m ATA tags in use in Texas, divided between 1.3m EZTag brand in Houston and about 700k TollTags in Dallas. They have been interoperable since Oct 2003 in Houston and mid-2004 in Dallas. The Central Texas area surrounding the state capital Austin is only 261km (160mi) from Houston and 314km (195mi) from Dallas so most of the travel there is by car. No news yet on when the big Houston (Harris/Fort Bend county) and Dallas (North Texas Tollway Authority) tollsters will be upgrading their readers to read the sticker tags, but they have agreed to do this to allow for continuation of statewide interoperability. Upgrading their readers to ATA/eGo dual protocols will also allow the state's two largest toll agencies to begin issuing their own sticker tags. Coming online at the same time as the TxDOT tollroads will be TX183A tollroad under construction by Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA). It has Caseta Technologies designing a toll system which will have dual protocol readers, and probably sticker tags too. (see CORRECTION at the bottom of this page TOLLROADSnews 2005-10-05)

Largest tollroad complex in US under construction

The three tollroad project in the Austin area called the Central Texas Turnpike Project (CTTP) is probably the largest currently under construction in the US. Project cost is $3,659m for 105km (65mi) of tollroad, which includes:

* TX130, 79km (49mi) of north-south tollroad down the eastern fringe of the greater Austin area taking off from I-35 at its northern end north of Georgetown, passing close by the regional airport and ending back near I-35 (to which it will be linked by another stretch of tollroad US183S.) Initially of 2x2 lanes it is designed for widening to 2x4 lanes. TX130 as being built now is 196 lane-miles (315 lane-km). Construction cost is $1039m, $5.3m/lane-mile ($3.3m/lane-km).

    TX130 will have four mainline toll plazas and 30 ramp plazas. The mainline plazas will all have open road tolling with cash payment off to the rightside.

* The TX45S/Loop-1 tollroad complex is a T-plan intraurban system of 2x3 lanes, much of it elevated. The Loop-1 portion is only 5km (3mi) with a highspeed interchange with east-west running TX45N which is 21km (13mi) long. The TX45N/Loop-1 combination has 3 mainline plazas and 13 ramp plazas. The total of TX54N/L-1 is 96 lane-miles (154 lane-km). Construction cost is $550m or $5.7m/lane-mile ($3.6m/lane-km).

There are some frontage roads associated with the project, but they are not continuous.

Toll systems

United Toll Systems (UTS) are the prime toll systems contractor with Washington Group International and PBS&J also having pieces of the toll action.

UTS proved up a unqiue approach to open road tolling on the Miami Dade Expressway Authority's network. They use smart loops of their own design ("next generation" after Idris, they say!) to detect, track and classify vehicles. They are unusual in having no equipment roadside or overhead except the RF and violations cameras. They will install TransCore Amtech readers but supply their own lane controllers and other equipment and systems for violations and plaza level and central processing.

Construction and design costs are $1,206m for TX130 and $1.041m for TX45N/Loop-1, for a total design-build cost of $2,247m. Right of way most of which was donated is valued at $695m and some $717m was budgeted for financing costs (interest, reserve fund, insurance and issuance costs). Contracts provide for opening in stages between Sept and Dec 2005 after a July 2002 start. But Phil Russell, head of the Texas Turnpike Authority Division told us that the project is well below budgeted cost and well ahead of schedule.

Sticker tag description

TransCore describes the eGo tag this way: "The eGo Plus sticker tag is a 915 MHz radio frequency programmable, beam-powered, windshield-mounted tag. Packaged as a flexible sticker, this tag is ideal for applications that require low-cost, easily installed tags and is appropriate for electronic toll collection, airport access and ground transportation management systems, parking access, and security access. The tag supports multiple protocols, making it easy to migrate from a mixed-tag population to a common tag.

The eGo Plus, non-battery sticker tag offers a read range of up to 31.5 feet (9.6 meters) and 2048-bit read/write memory at a fraction of the cost of older, less flexible RFID technology. The tag provides the capability to read, write, rewrite, or permanently lock individual bytes. Custom printing and labeling is also available.

Each eGo Plus sticker tag comes equipped with a factory-programmed unique tag identification number that prevents the tag from being duplicated. The eGo Plus sticker tag is read by TransCore's family of readers, which are configurable to support a protocol compliant with ANSI INCITS 256-2001 and ISO 10374 standards, and the ATA Standard for automatic equipment identification."

Comparison with Penn Pike's southwest tollroads

The only tollroad construction project arguably bigger than the Central Texas Turnpike Project (CTTP) threesome of TX130/45N/L-1 is the Pennsylvania Turnpike's Mon-Fayette/Southern Beltway (MFSB) project south and west of Pittsburgh. The MFSB is longer (101mi) than the CTTP (65 miles) and will probably cost more - $4b is the latest figure I've come across.

There's a big difference. The CTTP is being built Texan-speed - about eight times as fast as the MFSB project in PA. The MFSB will be built over about 40 years compared to five years for the Texan project.

The MFSB requires lots of tax money and tax money comes in dribs and drabs. Tolls are just an assisting add-on. By contrast the CTTP is fully toll-financed.

The CTTP has a planned add-on to take TX130 right down to I-10 in Seguin, which would probably make it bigger than the MFSB. And the Texans will probably get that built while the Penn Pike does another enviro study for another segment of the MFSB. So a lot of these comparisons depend on your bounding definitions of what a project is. TOLLROADSnews 2005-09-23

CORRECTION: A senior HCTRA official tells us their existing Amtech AI 1200 readers will read the new eGo-Plus sticker tags so they and NTTA don't need to switch over to new dual protocol readers for there to be interoperability when Central Texas eGo sticker tags start showing up in Houston and Dallas. He says the eGo-Plus sticker tags have three protocols embedded within them: ATA, eGo and eGo-Plus. The first generation eGo sticker tags only have the single protocol and can't be read by the AI 1200 readers.

Both HCTRA and NTTA are testing the new eGo-Plus sticker tags under their AI 1200 readers on staff cars. So far HCTRA have found the new sticker tags work extremely well. Unless something bad turns up in continuing tests they will be looking to buy eGo-Plus sticker tags for future use and will cease buying the hardcase ATA tags. TOLLROADSnews 2005-10-05