The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) has awarded traffic management and tolling giant TransCore with the implementation contract for the third phase of the Silicon Valley Express Lanes Program.
Following its successful deployment of Phase 1 of the Silicon Valley Express Lanes Program, and with work underway on Phase 2, TransCore has again been selected by the VTA to implement Phase 3 of the Program along US 101.
Once completed, the first three phases of the program will stretch from Milpitas to Palo Alto. The company was a member of the team to help deploy VTA’s first phase of express lanes in 2012 along State Road 237 (SR 237) and Interstate 880 (I-880), cutting travel time for drivers in all lanes and earning a Project-of-the-Year Award by the California Transportation Foundation.
In 2015, VTA selected TransCore to again implement its express lanes tolling technology for Phase 2, which extends express lanes operations along SR 237 westward to Sunnyvale, and is expected to be completed in 2019.
TransCore was selected for implementation of its tolling technology for the US 101/SR 85 corridor with Phase 3 being the first implementation on US 101 from SR 237 to the Santa Clara/San Mateo County Line. TransCore will again implement its Infinity Digital Lane System customized for express lanes operations and known as Infinity Express.
The company’s TransSuite Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) will be integrated to support express lanes operations, and dynamic pricing algorithms will be employed to take into account real-time traffic conditions in both the express and general-purpose lanes.
Since developing the country’s first high occupancy toll (HOT) lane system in San Diego in 1997, TransCore has deployed and operated over 600 miles (966km) of HOT/express lanes across California, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia.
“As the Congestion Management Agency for Santa Clara County, it is vital for us to utilize the most effective tools and services on the market to ensure improved mobility throughout our region,” said Casey Emoto, deputy director of VTA’s engineering and program delivery division. “We have relied on, and benefited from, TransCore’s expertise for the Silicon Valley Express Lanes Program with excellent results.”
TransCore vice president and managing director Chris Hall commented, “We are honored that the VTA has again placed its trust in us. We are confident this network of express lanes will serve as a model for others to follow in the pursuit of safe, reliable mobility across the regions.”
