552 The length of the
Pennsylvania Turnpike
FORWARD THINKING
The STAR app for fi rst-responders, Accelerated Bridge Construction
and electronic open-road tolling are three further PTC innovations
The IBTTA President’s
Award has yet to gather
dust, but Pennsylvania
Turnpike Commission (PTC)
is already hatching a new
clutch of potential prizewinning
projects through its
risk-taking corporate
mindset. One of these is STAR
(Situational Traffi c Awareness
Response), a mobile app for
maintenance staff and
emergency responders
employed by PTC.
“There’s a team approach
that has to be orchestrated,”
says PTC’s Mark Compton.
“We’re a limited-access
highway and you lose time if
an ambulance jumps on at
the wrong gate. Ambulance
crews do change occasionally
so don’t have the history.
When you communicate by
voice, eastbound versus
westbound gets confusing.”
STAR, like CAAR,
integrates crucial
information in one platform
TOLLTRANS 2020
for quicker incident
clearance. “That gets our
maintenance guys off the
roadway,” says John Parker.
“That’s huge to me
personally, because people
do not pay attention when
they drive, so it is a
potentially dangerous
situation for them to be in.”
Revolutionary Accelerated
Bridge Construction (ABC)
has also enabled PTC to
complete recent works in
lightning-quick time. “We’ve
just fi nished a project where
the team constructed a full
bridge in two weekend
closures, which would
have taken two years under
limited lane-patterns,” says
Compton. “That was a true
home run.”
In 2022, PTC’s
implementation of allelectronic
38 www.TrafficTechnologyToday.com
cashless tolling
across the entire Turnpike
will be complete. “We’ve
followed a process of piloting
and testing to make sure it
works for us,” says Compton.
The cashless regime will
create dramatic gains in
cost-effi ciency. “Businesses
and communities regularly
request new access-points,
which are currently very
costly. But with gantries
across the mainline, you can
do a US$55 million
diamond-style interchange
without tolling apparatus,
instead of US$100 million
before. Cashless tolling will
also improve E-ZPass
penetration, which means
not sending bills.” Dispensing
with booths will also improve
safety. “Roughly 82% of our
traffi c is choosing E-ZPass,”
Compton continues. “Then
18% of drivers, typically
those less familiar with the
roadway, are still slowing or
dashing across traffi c to fi nd
a cash lane. That’s a recipe
for disaster – so safety is
a key component.”
Left and below: CAAR
is just one of the
technological innovations
helping to keep the
famous Pennsylvania
Turnpike clear and
free-fl owing
TOLLROADGIS
allows us to use our service
patrols more effi ciently and
dispatch before the call comes in.”
Incredibly, CAAR has enabled PTC
to reduce its average incident clearance
time from one hour 46 minutes to just
one hour 18 minutes – a superb returnon
investment.
The Turnpike will turn 80 in October
2020, but with its rich heritage comes a
continual need to maintain and upgrade
aging infrastructure. A binding
obligation to provide US$450 million in
transit funding to the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania means that PTC remains in
debt, despite annual toll increases of
5-6%. “There’s always a back-and-forth
conversation about capital expenditure
in miles
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