The Maine Turnpike Authority has extended its statewide toll collection system maintenance contract with TransCore, which has provided the service for the last 19 years.
Toll industry giant TransCore will continue its relationship with the Turnpike Authority for another 10 years, through to June 30, 2026. The company will continue to maintain all facets of the turnpike’s toll collection system, which includes the newly deployed Infinity Digital Lane System (above), which is TransCore’s flagship tolling system.
The company has partnered with the authority since 1997, when the agency originally selected TransCore to design, integrate and install advanced tolling equipment on its 124-lane, 17-toll plaza system, which covers more than 100 miles (160km) of roadway. Since that time, TransCore has developed, deployed, and maintained additional toll system technologies in Maine, such as the state’s E-ZPass electronic toll collection and violations enforcement systems.
In 2005, E-ZPass replaced the original Maine-only Transpass system, which had been in use since 1997. In 2013, the authority again selected TransCore to add open road tolling (ORT) lanes at the New Gloucester interchange and begin upgrading the turnpike’s cash lanes at all interchanges with the company’s modular Infinity system. To date, seven interchanges have been upgraded to the Infinity Digital Lane System, with construction currently underway at several other interchanges. As the statewide toll system provider, TransCore will continue to provide full maintenance services for the turnpike’s system. The Maine Turnpike forms part of I-95, the main north-south corridor in eastern USA.
TransCore’s Infinity Digital Lane System is made up of independent components that can be easily and more economically repaired or upgraded, without taking the entire system down and stopping the flow of traffic. The modular or ‘blade-based’ architecture extends the life of the system well beyond other tolling systems that only achieve a useful life of 5-7 years and add unnecessary burdens to local transportation budgets.
The Infinity system integrates automatic vehicle identification (AVI), vehicle classification, and video capture and recognition systems specifically designed to automatically collect transactions in high-volume traffic, across a wide variety of traffic speeds and patterns, with the highest degrees of accuracy in the industry.
“The turnpike has a rich heritage as the first ‘superhighway’ in New England,” said chief financial officer and treasurer of the Maine Turnpike, Doug Davidson. “Over the years, we are proud to have set national standards in how highways are continually improved.”
Ron Rahn, vice president at TransCore, commented, “The Maine Turnpike Authority continues to set a great example for how our nation’s highways and toll roads can be effectively financed, developed and maintained. We are honored to continue our long-standing partnership with the authority in furthering the goal to keep Maine’s highways moving and safe.”
