Miami Dade Expressway talk $124m contracts with ETC for all-electronic tolling (AET)

Miami Dade Expressway Authority are negotiating contracts with Electronic Transaction Consultants (ETC) for a radical conversion to all electronic tolling (AET). The conversion is radical in that MDX will go from being a leaky toll setup with tolls at only six points (four both directions, two one direction), potential revenues leaking at the many untolled segments, to a comprehensive toll system at 45 toll points covering most possible journeys on their network of five urban expressways.

MDX presently has two all-electronic toll points and another open road toll point (cash alongside), but the new work will see the end of cash toll collection and free flow all-electronic tolling throughout the network. There will be a total of around 100 AET toll lanes, versus the present approximate 60 total cash, cash/ETC, ORT (open road toll). MDX is building a point toll system (as opposed to a trip based system) and this will be implemented with a mix of new gantries spanning the mainline and ramps.

AET will be phased in from 2010 to 2013.

ETC's price for the work is:

-  $38m for in-lane or front end equipment including transponder readers, license plate cameras and plaza host hardware and software

- $86m for back end services including customer service, accounts management, and violations processing over ten years

ETC scored 88.23 won the front end work in competition with:

- ACS State & Local scoring 87.95

- TransCore scoring 87.45

- Telvent scoring 67.27

- Raytheon whose submission was deemed "Non-responsive" to the RFP and not scored

(ADDITION 2009-05-13 14:10): Raytheon's in-lane or front end proposal was deemed "non-responsive" by recommendation of the MDX Technical Evaluation Committee because, according to an MDX agenda item "the company represented that its Price Proposal was not fully based on MDX's scope of services." MDX Special Board Meeting, March 4 2009, Agenda Item Report)

ETC was also scored #1 in the contract for back end office systems and services with a score of 92.38 in competition with:

- VESystems scoring 85.54

- ACS 80.69

- TransCore 70.86

- Telvent/Faneuil 70.57

The scoring was out of 65 points for technical aspects and 35 points price.

In the front end work TransCore topped the technical scoring with 92.4 followed by ACS 79.8 with ETC coming third at 75.4 and Telvent 4th with 69.4. Price swung it for ETC by a small margin over ACS.

In the back office services VESystems was the technical leader with 94.0 followed by ETC 82.2, ACS 81.8, Telvent/Faneuil 79.8 and TransCore 73.6. Price again won the contract for ETC by a fairly large margin over VESystems.

United Toll Systems which built the present toll system for MDX bid not bid.

see score sheet:

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/sites/default/files/MDXscores.pdf

HNTB were consultants to MDX on the procurement.

Plugging the leaks

MDX has gained acceptance of the plan to plug the leaks in their toll system arguing it will:

- improve toll equity by charging all drivers using MDX facilities rather relying on a  portion of the patrons

- enhance toll revenues and allow extra roadway and interchange improvements

- allow better management of the toll expressway network

Toll rates at the existing toll points will be reduced as adjacent toll points become active so overall trips don't cost more.

All 100 toll lanes at about 45 toll points will be equipped with cameras to record license plates as well as transponder readers and vehicle detection and classification equipment.  Each toll point will have a zone controller and a open road tolling (ORT) host, with redundant pieces of key equipment operating in standby mode to immediately takeover in cases of failure. Each toll point equipment shelter will have a generator to take over in case of a power outage.

MDX will supply the fiber backbone and ethernet for a wide area network linking the toll points.

Vehicle classification in the toll lanes, but not shoulders, must be able to count axles from 2 to 9.

Single gantry ORT

Open road tolling must be capable of being conducted from a single gantry. Often ORT is done with a pair of gantries or even a large trussed frame over the roadway. (REVISION: we misread the intention of the RFP, an MDX official says.  Initially MDX left open whether there would be single or double gantries. The single gantry requirement was only added to the civil/structural part of the contract after ETC had been chosen as the preferred contractor proposing a single gantry solution. 2009-05-13 14:10)

Violation enforcement (VES) and video toll equipment must be capable of working in traffic ranging from stop-&-go to 100mph (161km/hr) and illuminators and cameras must work in all light conditions and without distracting motorists.

In addition to the gantry-mounted VES MDX expects a mobile (vehicle mounted) VES available in a laptop in an officer's vehicle.

Accuracies required

Accuracies required in live tests of real traffic are:

- transponder reads (AVI) of 99.95%

- vehicle detection 99.99%

- vehicle classification 99.8%

- vehicle association at zone controller 99.95%

- optical character recognition of license plates 90%

- plate type 99%

- good plate read accuracy with image enhancement and manual review 99%

Staging

Staging will be:

1. FL924 Gratigny Parkway to begin AET late 2009, early 2010

2. FL874 Don Shula Expressway, FL878 Snapper Creek Expressway 2010-2011

3. FL836 Dolphin Expressway, FL112 Airport Expressway 2001-2012

TransCore E6 readers

Encompass 6 readers from TransCore are specified. They must be capable of reading SunPass, E-Pass (Orlando) and O-Pass (Oseola County) transponders, and compliant with Florida Interoperability requirements.

Dynamic pricing supported

The contract provides for a toll system fully capable of implementing dynamic pricing:

"The MDX ORT System shall be capable of utilizing a dynamic value-based pricing algorithm that varies the rate either on a per mile basis or by tolling location based on traffic volumes/speed on the ORT lanes.

"All of the criteria used for performing the pricing algorithm shall be configurable, flexible and table driven. Data from the ORT lanes shall be used to determine these values. The ORT Host System shall calculate the new per mile full rate at a configurable interval, e.g., every ten (10) minutes or as determined in the MDX Business Rules, based on pricing algorithms developed and approved during the design phase."

Several of the MDX tollroads are tightly constrained in right of way and widening will be very expensive and difficult. Variable pricing could help maintain freeflow by shifting some journeys out of the peak.

Job losses

110 toll collector jobs will end by 2012 though some will be replaced by extra customer service and enforcement work.

see http://www.mdx-way.com/

Florida's Turnpike Homestead Extension also going AET

Florida Turnpike is also beginning moves to go cashless on some of its tollroads. Around the end of 2009 work will begin on conversion to all-electronic tolling of the busy Homestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike (HEFT) which intersects several of the MDX expressways. The HEFT will then go all-electronic at about the same time as the MDX set of tollroads.

BACKGROUND: MDX operates five east-west expressways that total 109km (68 miles). They have upwards of 80 untolled trip movements. About 800k trips per day are made on the network of which 325k or 40% are tolled. With the extension of FL836 westward MDX opened their first cashless all-electronic segment of the system in 2007 although in 2006 they had begun a couple fo open road toll lanes alongside six cash lanes at a new one directional toll plaza toward the eastern end. They collect about $115m in tolls.

TERMINOLOGY: The US toll industry as usual has embraced linguistic anarchy, the same phrases being used to denote different concepts. We take Open Road Tolling (ORT) to mean the practice of highway speed electronic toll collection on a stretch of open road, whether or not there is cash toll collection off to the side. We use the term All-Electronic Tolling (AET) to mean the situation where there is no cash collection, only ORT.

TOLLROADSnews 2009-05-11 ADDITIONS & REVISIONS 2009-05-12