The Ohio Turnpike is doing electronic tolling. At a meeting this morning (Dec 18) the Ohio Turnpike Commission (OTC) voted money via its capital budget to begin implementation of toll system upgrades, the most significant of which is E-ZPass compatible electronic tolling (ET).

60% of trucks on the Turnpike already have E-ZPass/I-PASS accounts and transponders on their windshields but only 10% of the cars.

The Commission and Vollmer are working on "one or more" requests for proposals (RFPs) to implement the toll system improvements. However other consultants may also be hired to manage the project.

The same Turnpike/consultants team will work to develop OTC business rules and the toll system performance requirements to be written into the RFP.

The aim, executive director Gary Suhadolnik told us, is to have an operational system by end 2008.

A Strategic Plan including ET formally approved at the Nov 20 meeting of the Commission says selection of vendor(s) should occur after 35 to 40 weeks, with operations of the new system to begin 59 weeks after selection for a total project time of 94 to 99 weeks.

It puts the estimated total cost between $45m and $50m of which about $15m are E-ZPass-related.

The Strategic Plan adopted by the Commission is a followup to a toll systems report by Vollmer Associates, Carter & Burgess and Transportation Innovations commissioned in Nov 2005. The report itself which was shaped by the consultants working with a Turnpike Commission Toll Collection System Advisory Committee hasn't yet been made public.

Major features

Major features of the toll system upgrade are:

- an E-ZPass compatible transponder system to be installed as a retrofit in all existing toll lanes for roll-through (low speed) operation

- gates to be retained so no video enforcement (VES) is required for the time being

- the existing Ready Toll and Commercial Charge magstrike cards will be discontinued when transponders come in

- customer service and back office operations for transponder users to be operated by OTC staff

- existing weight based vehicle classification for trucks to be maintained for now but provision to be made for a future move to axle-based classing

- automated toll payment machines which take credit cards, bills and coins will be deployed across all toll plazas (possible extra purchases of Trafficwerks machines)

231 toll lanes at 31 interchanges

The Ohio Turnpike spans the north of the state east-west and is 388km (241mi) long, designated I-76, I-80, and I-80/90 going westward. It links the Pennsylvania Turnpike with the Indiana Toll Road at its ends. Except for the I-76 portion in the far east most of it is 2x3 travel lanes. It has 31 interchanges and 231 toll lanes. Tolling is by trip presently based on a magstripe ticket which the motorist picks out of a ticket dispensing machine on entry and which is handed to a toll collector on exit, the ticket retaining the entry details so the trip toll can be calculated. Apart from the mainline toll plazas at the state line ends, the entry/exit toll plazas are organized at the neck of trumpet interchanges which bring all movements together on the transitions with cross roads.

Applying to join E-ZPass IAG soon

The plan says the Turnpike will apply for membership of the E-ZPass Interagency Group (IAG) to become interoperable with other E-ZPass toll agencies.

Sept 2007 for vendor selection

No date is given in the plan for the RFP though it seems likely to us to be about June 2006. It does say that a toll systems vendor should be selected 35 to 40 weeks from the start of the process which is this month. Implementation would be be done in 59 weeks, 94 to 99 weeks after the start. That seems to mean a Sept-Oct 2007 selection with the system to go live in about Nov 2008.

Sudaholnik says ET to cost

Executive director Gary Suhadolnik told us in a conversation today we were wrong to report recently that the Teamsters Union have been the obstacle to earlier implementation of electronic tolling. He said there was "a relationship to manage" with the union which represents toll collectors.

But he said that the Commission has been in control of the timetable. He reiterated that the business case for electronic tolling has been weaker than most toll authorities because of its lack of a significant commuter component in the traffic. There is only a small number of regular daily users - the prime customers for transponders - and very little peaking of traffic at the toll plazas stressing the plazas for higher throughput.

In addition, Suhadolnik said, the Commission had budgetary issues to resolve before it could make the move to go to electronic tolling and upgrade the toll system. Even now, he says "It won't save us any money. It will cost us money. It won't be a money saver, but we are doing it to provide improved service to our customers."

The strategic plan document does say that the introduction of transponder tolling will allow the commission to save on land acquisition and capital costs that might have to be incurred in the future to expand capacity at some toll plazas.

MAY BE ADDITIONS

TOLLROADSnews 2006-12-18