North Carolina Pike say got good prices for all-electronic toll systems - nearly 20% off

North Carolina Turnpike Authority (NCTA) people say they have signed well priced contracts for all-electronic toll systems for the new Triangle Expressway. Overall cost of three of four toll procurements was $37.6m v $46.5 engineers' prior estimate - a 19% saving.

A contract for roadside toll equipment was signed this week with Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) for $14.2m providing roadside hardware and software, optical character recognition software, the main computer server and database plus maintenance.

The roadside contract had been costed by engineers at $17m, so the contract award was 16% low.

ACS also has a contract with the NC Pike for back office systems for $8m which the Pike's engineers had estimated would be $9.2m, 13% off.

This includes design, development, installation, and implementation of hardware, software and telecommunication networks for customer account processing; video image and billing processing; necessary system interfaces; fully interactive customer website; and maintenance of the equipment and software.

Both ACS contracts provide for 5 years of maintenance of equipment.

A third contract signed with URS Corp called an Operations contract covers 18 months development and 5 years management and staffing of all customer service facilities and related-activities, according to Andy Lelewski, director of operations at NCTA.

Contract price was $15.3m v engineers' estimate of $20.2m, almost a quarter off.

Project engineers helping NCTA with the all-electronic toll system procurement are from PBS&J in the lead, and HNTB. Baker and BWZ Associates helped in specialty areas during negotiations, according to Lelewsky. (REVISIONS, ADDITIONS 2008-12-19 12:00)

Epic struggle over reader-tag systems continues

There's a fourth procurement for gantry-borne readers and vehicle transponders or tags that pits an interesting Kapsch-Mark IV partnership against TransCore.

That epic contest is not yet decided, but Pike officials said last month the decision would be made by mid-January.

Back in June when proposals were received the timetable was for the Pike board to get a staff recommendation Oct 21 for a contract to be finalized Nov 18.

The systems support tolling in 65 open road toll lanes.

In a statement today David Joyner executive director of the Turnpike said of the three contracts just signed: “These critical systems will allow the Turnpike Authority to offer its customers the highest levels of service. These contracts are funded by bond proceeds, and we are excited to begin this work.”

The toll systems are part of the $1.02 billion Triangle Expressway project, a new roadway from the NC55 Bypass near Holly Springs to I-40 at NC147 in Wake and Durham counties. This toll road system is 18.8 miles (30.3km) long and is comprised of three segments: (1) Western Wake Freeway, (2) Triangle Parkway and existing NC540 between NC55 and NC54. 

There are eleven interchanges (see map nearby).

The project is expected to save motorists up to 20 minutes per full length trip.

The Triangle Expressway is one of a new generation of all-electronic tollroads that use transponder readers and cameras to identify and toll vehicles at full highway speed in a normal section of expressway. They have no stop-to-pay cash collection.

The Triangle Parkway segment is scheduled to open to traffic in 2011 and the Western Wake Freeway segment  in 2012.

see http://www.ncturnpike.org/

TOLLROADSnews 2009-12-18 (REVISIONS, ADDITIONS 2008-12-19 12:00)