A $300,000 set of machines being installed on the Tacoma Narrows bridge this week can read the latest windshield stickers that identify drivers with electronic Good to Go accounts.
A state contractor has agreed to upgrade its equipment and added four of the new readers Tuesday night. After testing, seven more readers will be upgraded by mid-September, state toll director Craig Stone said Thursday.
Tests look good so far, he said. The contractor put the new readers through the paces on a test track in Albuquerque, N.M., with a state Department of Transportation engineer looking on.
“It will be a great relief to us. It will be a great relief to our customers,” Stone said.
State transportation officials say the $303,200 cost of the readers would be charged to state Route 520 toll payers. That’s because tolling the 520 bridge over Lake Washington was the impetus for the state buying a new generation of electronic transponders that couldn’t be read by the original equipment on the Narrows bridge.
Most vehicles with the older transponders are picked up by cameras, but that system was expected to cost the state as much as $600,000 a year in lost tolls because not every car’s license plate could be read by the cameras.
Officials say they made the switch anyway because the savings from buying new, cheaper transponders would outweigh the loss.
The new transponders, most in the form of windshield stickers, use open-source technology that can be duplicated – unlike the old versions that rely on contractor TransCore’s proprietary technology.
TransCore had said it would not upgrade its readers to scan the new transponders made by Sirit Inc. But it reversed itself after negotiations with the state.
TransCore couldn’t be reached to explain its reversal. “Maybe they see the handwriting on the wall nationally,” Deputy Transportation Secretary David Dye said. States are moving away from proprietary toll technology, Dye said.
The state has said it would have had to pay twice as much to buy the new Narrows bridge readers from Sirit.
The readers on state Route 167 High Occupancy Toll lanes are already upgraded to read both sets of transponders. The 520 bridge also will be equipped to accept either kind.
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