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NTTA Board Approves Transition to All-Electronic-Toll-Collection “The decision to become an all-electronic-toll-collection system was carefully reviewed. We recognize this will affect our employees who work at our tollbooths and other toll collection areas,” said Rick Herrington, NTTA Deputy Executive Director. “After looking at the potential benefits including improving air quality and increasing mobility in North Texas, the NTTA Board made a decision that provides the highest benefit to our customers and to our organization.”
While the change to an all-ETC system is expected to result in a reduction in revenues, this will be more than offset by the estimated savings in operations and maintenance costs. The move to an all-ETC system could also result in significant savings in capital costs since the planned reconstruction of several toll plazas will no longer be needed.
The agency has already put a plan into place to assist the more than 400 Toll Collection and Vault Department employees with placement in other areas of the NTTA. It is the Authority’s goal to successfully place all toll collection and vault employees by the end of the migration process through a series of Human Resources initiatives.
The implementation schedule calls for the Tollway ramp plazas and Mountain Creek Lake Bridge to become all-ETC in 2008; the Tollway main lane plazas and Addison Airport Toll Tunnel to be converted in 2009; and the entire President George Bush Turnpike (ramp plazas and main lane plazas) in 2010.
TollTag customers will see no change as all-ETC is implemented. They will be able to continue to travel through any lane on the NTTA system and their accounts will automatically be billed for the tolls. Cash customers will also be able to travel through any lane. Cameras will photograph their license plate and an invoice will be sent to the address associated with that license plate.
The NTTA has been at the forefront of electronic toll collection since the late 1980’s. ETC was implemented on the Dallas North Tollway in 1989; the first such program of its kind on a toll road in the United States.
In January of this year, the NTTA first introduced its ZipCash all-electronic tolling system for motorists traveling through the Wycliff Avenue Main Toll Plaza at the south end of the Dallas North Tollway. That area is undergoing major renovations and it was necessary to close toll booths at Wycliff and initiate the ZipCash system to reduce construction area congestion.
Southwest Parkway (State Highway-121T), a joint project in Tarrant County with the City of Fort Worth and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), is already planned as an all-ETC facility. Construction on that NTTA project is expected to begin in early 2008. Also, the SH 121 Project from McKinney west to near the Tarrant County line is being planned as an all-ETC roadway. (The Texas Department of Transportation currently operates a portion of that roadway from FM 2281 in Carrollton south to the Denton/Dallas county line near Denton Tap Road as an all-ETC facility.) The President George Bush Turnpike Eastern Extension (from SH 78 in Garland east to Interstate Highway 30) and the Lewisville Lake Toll Bridge will also be designed as all-ETC facilities.
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