Interoperability stressed in North Carolina's RFP for Triangle Expressway toll system

North Carolina Turnpike Authority (NCTA) have issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for an electronic toll collection (ETC) system with heavy emphasis on interoperabillity. North Carolina is the crossroads state in terms of different electronic toll technologies, located as it is just south of the huge E-ZPass Inter Agency Group of tollers with their active Mark IV transponders and east and north of states using ATA, eGo, Allegro passive transponders from TransCore. Complicating the situation further their neighbor South Carolina has a couple of small toll facilities using Mark IV transponders and the IAG protocol without being a member of the IAG.

NCTA also has consider whether the E-ZPass Inter Agency Group will be adopting a new technology as a result of its present procurement and how that might be accommodated.

NCTA's RFP is of interest because it faces many of the same issues as the IAG itself in its new toll technology RFP but is moving for a much faster procurement (Q: Is movement slower than an IAG procurement physically possible? Are there instruments capable of detecting it?)

"Interoperability" is the first functional requirement mentioned in the North Carolina RFP and constitutes one eighth (12.5%) of the technical score to be used in evaluating proposals. NCTA are asking for multiprotocol readers.

As a minimum proposers are asked to describe how NCTA can be interoperable with Florida (Allegro/eGo), Georgia (e/Go) and South Carolina (Mark IV non-IAG) and the IAG E-ZPass. Since the toll technologies in use in Florida and Georgia mirror those of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas that requirement in effect brings in those states.

Only the US truck weigh station bypass/407ETR transponders ASTMv6 and the California/Colorado Title 21 standards are not mentioned.

Section 2 begins: "ETC Interoperability is a very important operational and system concept to NCTA. It is imperative that NCTA have the ability to be interoperable with toll agencies throughout the northeast and the southeast regions. It is expected that NCTA roadways will have a significant percentage of traffic from these regions."

Patent lawyers wanted

The RFP asks that proposers identify any restrictions on achieving interoperability including patent issues. Each potential vendor is asked to state their willingness to sell their transponders independent of proposed ETC system chosen. They are also required to discuss their ability to read other manufacturers' (the RFP has the apostrophe misplaced) transponders.

The NCTA toll technology must be capable of being used beyond toll collection. Other uses to be discussed are electronic vehicle registration and inspection, parking payment, drive-by payments, congestion pricing, HOT lanes and traffic management.

In addition to roadside and back office systems

The ETC procurement covering transponders and reader/antennas is being conducted separately from the roadside toll collection system (RTCS) - vehicle detection and classification, video tolling etc and the Back Office System (BOS) procurements, though companies are invited to bid for all three contracts.

Proposers of ETC systems have to declare any problems they have in working with the RTCS of others.

NCTA is asking for open source architecture or code open to NCTA to use without restriction.

Transponders must have a warranty life of six years from the time of installation on a motorist's windshield.

Three transponder types wanted

NCTA is asking for three transponder types:

- internal without customer feedback

- internal with audible customer feedback

- external

The transponders must be read-write, but beyond that it is up to vendors as to their frequency (5.9GHz is not ruled out) and whether they are active or passive, battery powered or backscatter.

Accuracy

The ETC system must be better than 99.95%. It must read  and report vehicles only once and in only one place 99.95% of the time. This at speeds between zero and 160km/hr (100mph) and in all weather conditions.

Transponder data has to be reported to the controller within 70 milliseconds of the transponder-equipped vehicle entering the toll zone.

Equipment is sought to cover 39 travel lanes and 25 shoulder lanes for a total of 65 lanes at the 18 toll zones (counting one for each direction of traffic).

Proposals are due July 22.

BACKGROUND: The Expressway is due to open in December 2011. 30km (18.8 miles) long and of 3 travel lanes in each direction it has eleven interchanges and is Y-shaped in plan. It provides north-south connectivity on the western side of the Raleigh metro area.

NCTA is actively developing several other toll projects. (see map below)

see RFP here

http://www.ncturnpike.org/pdf/NCTA-ETC%20RFP-FINAL%20052209.pdf

                                                                                                                        TOLLROADSnews 2009-05-21