Bush Turnpike in Dallas, E470 Denver go all-electronic this week (ADDITIONS)

North Texas Tollway Authority on the President George Bush Turnpike and E470 Public Highway Authority in Denver CO will cease all cash toll collection this week. The conversions to all-electronic tolling (AET) will be very differently conducted. Tuesday night (June 30) NTTA will begin work installing new AET signage and bringing in barriers aiming to have some 75 cash lanes closed down and physically barriered off by the Wednesday morning peakhours.

From the first minutes of Wednesday traffic will be directed to use the central open road toll lanes at the five mainline plazas and to use the single transponder lane at ramp toll points.

Long transition in Denver

On E-470 the transition to AET has been over six months. Since the beginning of this year motorists on the Denver pike have had the option of AET, being billed a video toll if they use the central open road toll lanes without a transponder.

But they have also retained the option of stopping to pay cash at cash lanes on the side, although the number staffed has been steadily reduced.

Come July 4 however the transition to AET will be consummated on E470 with the closure of all cash lanes.

NTTA is calling the conversion All-Electronic Toll Collection or "all-ETC" and calls video tolls ZipCash (we can see the "Zip" bit, but why "-Cash" when you're dispensing with cash?- editor)

E470PHA is calling all-electronic tolling "Non-Stop Tolling."

Similarities and differences

The Denver and Dallas tollroads have much in  common:

- they were both substantially built around the turn of the century

- both were built with highway speed open road tolling in the center at mainline toll plazas and cash toll collection at the sides

- both have five mainline toll plazas while E470 has 16 pairs of ramp toll points and Bush Pike has 15 pairs.

- both provide connections to the major area airport

- both are partial belt routes although E470 provides substantial north-south connectivity across the east while the Bush Turnpike serves a lot of east-west traffic across the north of the Dallas area

- E470 is longer at 76km v 49km Bush Tpk (47mi v 30mi) but since E470 is 2x2 lanes v Bush Tpk 2x3 lanes they are very comparable in lane-km: 304 E470 v 294 Bush Pike (E470 188 lane-mi v Bush 183 lane-miles)

- costs were similar at $1.2b to $1.5b

- toll revenue of E470 is $97m/year, somewhat less than Bush at $113m but with 121 Toll parallel the Bush revenue could stagnate whereas E470 traffic has no competition and grows

Differences are:

- Dallas is part of a much larger metro area 5.22m pop v Denver 2.58m CMSA 2000

- the Bush Turnpike is just one of three major tollroads in operation or under construction by NTTA in the Dallas are (others being Dallas North Toll Road and 121 Toll Road) whereas E470 is the only toll facility planned to be built by E470PHA

- E470PHA is very professional in intense customer research and marketing, while NTTA is more traditional

see NTTA:

http://www.ntta.org/AboutUs/Projects/AllETC

see E470PHA:

https://www.expresstoll.com/Default.aspx?pn=NonStopTolling

TOLLROADSnews 2009-06-29 ADDITIONS 2009-06-30 20:00