Toll Excellence Awards

ETC was chartered to develop and implement an integrated Accounts Receivable Management (ARM) application initially for use by Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA). The ARM application was specifically designed and developed to collect on past due receivables along with the functionality to perform hearings, adjudication, and/or litigation. The ARM application was to be integrated with the ETC riteHorizon Back Office System implemented at HCTRA, along with electronic delivery of data and documents to the Harris County Attorney Office and County Clerk’s Office. The ARM application is a consolidated solution with the integration of advanced technologies, including a modern low-code user interface (UI) and cloud infrastructure, and can be integrated easily with any back-office system, tolling or otherwise. The system provides seamless integration across the various processes, with a clear timeline for each collection and legal action escalation points. This enables users to quickly evaluate each case and decide on the next steps.

In 2019, the Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission (OTIC) launched a multi-phased project to not only articulate the Ohio Turnpike's long-range strategic priorities (i.e., strategy development) but to ensure that day-to-day decisions and activities align with those priorities (i.e., strategy execution). OTIC wanted to be among the approximately 30 percent of organizations that successfully bridge the gap between strategy and execution. Most organizations conduct some form of periodic strategic planning: they develop Missions and Visions; they articulate Core Values; they identify long-term Strategic Objectives; etc. Simply developing such a strategic plan is not enough to ensure success. Bridging the gap between strategy and execution was key for OTIC to accelerate success. To accomplish this, OTIC took a page out of the high-tech playbook and implemented the Objectives and Key Results (i.e., OKR) methodology to guide day-to-day implementation of the Turnpike's strategic priorities. OTIC's strategy execution program has yielded tangible, measurable improvements in tolling performance and increased management accountability and transparency; all during a time of unprecedented global challenges caused by the unanticipated COVID-19 pandemic.

This project was in collaboration with NYS Thruway Authority and the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and Conduent Transportation.

Based upon extensive customer research the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA) recognized the need to increase self-service options for all drivers who receive tolls in the region. This led to the development of a smartphone application called Tolls NY, currently available on the Apple App Store (iOS) and the Google Play Store (Android). This new application provides a unified, first-class experience for both our E-ZPass customers and Tolls by Mail (unregistered) customers. We worked in close cooperation with our partner agencies– the Port Authority of NY/NJ and the NY State Thruway Authority – to ensure that it met their customer needs and worked seamlessly for all of the 12M+ regional drivers who are served by these three authorities. The application was designed by a new, cross-functional, customer-focused team at Conduent Transportation created to rapidly fulfil this specific need. This partnership gives our customers the best user experience available. The app is fully integrated into the Conduent-managed New York Customer Service Center back-office systems via newly developed APIs for increased speed, stability and future developments in our call center system and other automated touchpoints.

The ERC Connecting Communities Program is our commitment to good corporate citizenship. In 2020 we promised to make meaningful contributions and cultivate community partnerships that support the health, education, and environment of residents in Portsmouth and Norfolk; the two cities that the Elizabeth River Tunnels connect. And, because of COVID-19's impact, we saw an even greater need to connect the most vulnerable members of our community to much-needed resources. We consolidated our efforts into a few key sectors: Scholarships/Education, Health/Homelessness, and the Environment.

• Tidewater Community College (TCC) STEM Promise Program: The goal is to increase the number of STEM degrees awarded to women and to minority students. Through ERC's annual contribution, 20 students pursuing STEM programs will earn their associate degrees tuition-free.
• ERC Good Citizen Scholarship: Our scholarship rewards local students who make positive contributions to their school and community. Annually, one senior from each of the eight public high schools in Norfolk and Portsmouth receive a $1,500 scholarship toward any college, trade school or post-secondary institution expense. ERC renews the scholarship for each recipient for up to 4 years.
• Connecting Opportunities Program with the Hampton Roads Workforce Council (HRWC) and Tidewater Community College (TCC) Skilled Trades Academy: ERC partnered with the HRWC and TCC to create a new program that brings locally underserved and under-skilled community members to higher-paying, more stable opportunities. The Connecting Opportunities Program provides funds for 30 students (1/3 veterans) per year to receive training and employment assistance for in-demand construction and maritime trades.
• STARBASE Academy: Historically, Portsmouth Public School 4th-6th graders were brought to the STARBASE facility for four STEM education sessions. In 2020, they made the program virtual by creating Project SCOUT (STARBASE Connections & Outreach Using Technology).
• Norfolk Tides Reading & Batter Up Statistics Youth Education Programs: To connect local youth with the educational aspects of baseball through reading and mathematics, ERC worked with the Tides to create a program that offers students ticket vouchers for completing their Tides-administered Reading and Statistics Program materials.
• The Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore: In 2020, the Foodbank Backpack Program started drive-thru food distribution to keep contact minimal, and ERC increased its annual donation to allow the program to keep up with increased demand and expand its territory.
• Senior Services of Southeastern Virginia: For seniors 60+, this organization transitioned to emergency mode during the pandemic—delivering more than 3,000 meals per week and helped alleviate social isolation through virtual resources.\
• Mercy Chefs: In the face of Covid-19, Mercy Chefs distributed professionally prepared, nutritious freezer-packed meals to residents.
• HOPE Charitable Services: During the pandemic, they worked tirelessly to assist at-risk children and struggling families with food resources, academic reinforcement and more.
• Oasis Social Ministry: Oasis served nutritious breakfasts and lunches to-go seven days a week, offered a drive‐up food pantry three days a week, and distributed groceries and clothing to seniors.
• Elizabeth River Project: As local field trips to the Elizabeth River Project's (ERP) 120-foot Learning Barge were canceled in 2020, ERC helped ERP purchase a van to create a "Learning Barge on Wheels", a mobile classroom that travels directly to neighborhoods, schools, and youth groups, delivering the hands-on science and river education activities.
• Elizabeth River Trail: ERC helped open a new Double Turbo Challenge Course on the trail. In addition to ERC's financial support, our operations and maintenance teams added lights near and around the park, made minor landscaping and structural changes to surrounding areas, and are currently evaluating ways to bring a water supply to the park.
• Hampton Roads Transit: Per an agreement signed in 2013, ERC makes an annual "Support Services" payment of $2,145,000 to Hampton Roads Transit (HRT) to enhance and expand transit services between Portsmouth and Norfolk. ERC's "Support Services" include the leasing of seven 40-ft buses, labor, fuel, maintenance, and insurance. The buses are not obligated to pay tolls at our tunnels.
• VDOT Toll Relief Program: To help ease the financial burden of the tolls on Norfolk and Portsmouth residents, ERC funds the program annually and will continue to do so until 2037. Through the program, eligible residents can receive refunds when they take eight or more trips per month through the Elizabeth River Tunnels.

The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority system (OTA) currently operates eleven turnpikes totaling 624.4 miles. The Gilcrease Turnpike, a 5.7-mile corridor, is currently under construction and scheduled to open in 2022. There are 97 active toll collection locations with three to be added next year. In 2015, the OTA announced "Driving Forward: Investing in Oklahoma's Future", a $1.19 billion program that included reconstruction of two major interchanges on the Muskogee and H.E. Bailey Turnpikes, twenty-two miles of widening from four lanes to six lanes on the Turner Turnpike, widening and rehabilitation of the John Kilpatrick Turnpike bridges over the North Canadian River, an extension of the John Kilpatrick Turnpike from I-40 to SH152/Airport Road, and the construction of the Kickapoo Turnpike.. The OTA Information Technology (IT) Division began assessing the existing fiber network and the capacity to provide high-speed connectivity to the new toll collection locations as well as filling fiber backbone gaps on existing turnpikes. Faced with the fiscal responsibility of constructing 68.3 miles of new fiber backbone within a three year window the OTA determined it could not financially manage that effort and began looking for alternatives.

The newly completed Selmon West Extension is an elevated 1.9-mile two-lane roadway located in Tampa, FL, which connects to the Selmon Expressway. The Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority (THEA) began construction of the $230 million project in December 2017 and completed it in April 2021.

The Selmon Extension offers drivers a choice to either stay on Gandy Boulevard for local destinations or use the Extension for regional "pass-through" trips. The opening marks the second time in 15 years that THEA has built a first-of-its-kind superstructure in the United States. In 2006, THEA completed the Selmon Expressway's Reversible Express Lanes (REL), an all-electronic, elevated express lane project.

Gandy Boulevard (State Road 600/U.S. 92) in South Tampa is heavily utilized by drivers who commute to or from neighboring Pinellas County, making this road extremely congested, particularly during peak hours. Over the years, there were various proposals to widen the roadway, but these attempts failed due to public opposition, additional right-of-way requirements, and funding constraints.

Recognizing that regional and local traffic volumes would continue to increase due to large-scale migration to Tampa Bay, THEA proposed an alternative to widening the existing roadway.

The Selmon West Extension is elevated and constructed within the 30-foot median located in Gandy Boulevard. All work is within the existing THEA and Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) right-of-way. By removing the "pass-through" traffic coming to and from the Gandy Bridge, the Selmon Extension creates at least 35% greater capacity on Gandy Boulevard for neighborhood traffic and customers of Gandy Boulevard businesses. The project was advertised as an adjusted score (best value) design-build project on January 20, 2017. THEA's Board of Directors approved the selection of the Kiewit Corporation/AECOM team on July 24, 2017, and the design-build firm was issued a Notice to Proceed by THEA on September 25, 2017.

The Kiewit team proposed an elegant extradosed tendon concrete segmental viaduct for most of the length along Gandy Boulevard, transitioning to steel tub girders shaped and painted to match the segmental portion at the interchange on the east end of the project. The bridge foundation consists of 55 piers and caps supported by four redundant drilled shafts for each pier. The extradosed tendons (similar to a cable-stayed bridge with the cables encased in concrete finbacks) allow a shallow superstructure and longer spans between piers, which is particularly critical at the Westshore and Manhattan intersections. The elevated bridge is three different bridge types combined. These include precast concrete segments, steel tub girders, and prestressed concrete beams. A total of 744 segments were precast offsite and transported to the
95 project site for erection and post-tensioned into the viaduct structure. Over 1400 ground improvement piles were installed within the interchange area to support the ramps and MSE walls.

The Selmon Extension has a unique design that has never been built in the United States. These fins are not just for aesthetics, they help support the bridge deck that enables longer span lengths between pier columns and allows a reduced height cross-section for the precast segments.

Back in 2017, THEA asked the community to vote on the Selmon Extension's aesthetic design. The Tampa Bay community overwhelmingly chose the "Estuary" design for the Extension's columns and fins, the cream-and-blue pattern representing nature envisioned in the form of a river delta.

THEA also listened to the business community's concerns and designed a 30' bridge, double the height of a standard bridge, to ensure the visibility of the businesses on both sides of Gandy Boulevard. The Construction Engineering Inspection (CEI) and Public Involvement Team personally visited approximately 70 Gandy Boulevard businesses and continued ongoing communications throughout the project with existing and new businesses. Since construction, 13 new businesses have opened along Gandy Boulevard. THEA listened to the community and kept its promises from ensuring easy access and visibility for businesses along the Gandy Corridor to keeping a commitment to the project renderings and final superstructure.

Learn more about the promises kept and made - a rarity in big projects like this - at https://www.tampa-xway.com/promises-made-promises-kept/, including how toll revenues and bonds fully funded the Selmon West Extension without using any taxpayer dollars.

The North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) is the MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization) for the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex, and they oversee a network of eight (8) managed lanes (www.TEXpress.com).

There are more than 120 miles of interconnected TEXpress lanes that form a network within the North Texas region. Managed to reduce congestion and keep traffic flowing, these lanes use variable, dynamic pricing in which tolls fluctuate based on real-time traffic conditions. The Regional Transportation Council established policies that provide a high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) toll discount on TEXpress Lanes during weekday peak periods.

The North Central Texas Council of Governments and the Texas Department of Transportation deployed the world's first automatic occupancy verification system to provide users with a 50% toll discount for HOV2+ travel on TEXpress managed lanes. Dallas/Ft.Worth (DFW) is the fourth-largest region in the nation, with a population of 7.5 million. Part of the DFW Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) efforts are to provide discounts to carpoolers during rush hours on their managed toll lanes.

Tasked with replacing a manual high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) pre-declaration and roadside enforcement system, the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) staff set out to find a more advanced and automated solution to improve ease of use for drivers, as well as to improve safety, reliability and reduce customer service complaints.

NCTCOG evaluated enforcement solutions including; cameras, in-vehicle hardware and pre-declaration tags/apps. None of these options were accurate, they were too challenging to deploy, extremely costly, and did not improve safety for law enforcement personnel. Ultimately, NCTCOG contracted with Carma Technology Corporation of Austin, TX, for a fully automated smartphone app, requiring neither driver interaction nor roadside enforcement.

GoCarma is a commercial off-the-shelf COTS smartphone app powered by AWS cloud servers. The GoCarma app does not require any interaction by the user before, during or after any trip. GoCarma does not require any infrastructure and moves away from enforcement by verifying occupancy to ensure the proper toll is applied. No guessing on vehicle occupancy on the part of law enforcement personnel or costly staff time examining occupant imaging photos. No customer support calls of users "forgetting" to set their switchable tag, and the program is not punitive, so customers don't complain that the system is primarily about revenue generation.

This program was launched after completing 3 federally funded pilots and seamlessly integrated with Cintra (the concession operator), Transcore (TXDOT's back-office integrator), and the North Texas Tollway Authority, which manages the metro area's electronic tolling.

Statistics As of May 2021

• Users>40,000
• Vehicles>30,000
• Transactions 1,250,000

Violating users receive a series of escalating warnings, and 98% change their behavior before the 4th notification. Habitual users get suspended from HOV discounts for 30 days, but can still use the managed lanes. To date, less than 1 of every 1,000 users has received a suspension, with violation rates less than 2%, and users give GoCarma an 86% satisfaction rating.

Drivers using the Dallas/Fort Worth Area (DFW) TEXpress Lanes now have a simple way to qualify for HOV toll discounts. Once set up with GoCarma, a vehicle's HOV status is automatically verified at TEXpress Lane locations using Bluetooth to verify that at least 2 people are in the vehicle. Only vehicles with a verified HOV status receive an HOV toll discount. Along with improving reliability and accuracy, GoCarma supports the political consensus for the move away from roadside enforcement to verification, which eliminates the need for roadside law enforcement spot checks to peer inside fast-moving vehicles or for costly photo image reviews.

GoCarma uses Bluetooth technology to automatically verify travelers in a carpool. No user interaction is required after setup, which reduces the potential for HOV violations and distracted driving. The GoCarma solution integrates with existing toll systems to ensure that HOV discount qualification is automatic, with discounts appearing on a road user's toll statement. GoCarma provides a free Occupant Pass option for passengers without smartphones, such as children or senior citizens, and protects user privacy by only collecting location data on TEXpress lanes during peak hours. GoCarma data is purged after 60 days and cannot be monetized, sold or shared with anyone.