The SH 288 Express Tolling Lanes in Houston are now open to traffic. SICE was appointed to deliver the Open Road Tolling Solution and the Inteligent Traffic Systems (ITS) for the express and the general-purpose lanes at this section of the SH 288. The project’s successful delivery benefited from the new SICE Toll Competence Center in North America which is providing support to the SH 288 project.
This new expansion of the SH 288, which encompasses a 10.3 mile stretch from US Route 59 to the Harris County line in Clear Creek, included four tolled lanes, eight new tolled direct connectors at Beltway 8, and new tolled direct connectors near the Texas Medical Center and related facilities. SICE’s solution, installed in this section, will allow financing the construction while guaranteeing and controlling, through dynamic rates, the traffic flow over one of Houston’s main traffic areas. This expanded portion of the SH 288 is expected to improve the Houstonians’ life by drastically reducing their commuting time.
SICE’s team has successfully completed on time the design, supply, installation, testing, and commissioning of the ORT and ITS. The Tolling solution deployed by SICE is a state of the art system, which gathers over 30 years SICE’s experience in the industry including the customization to meet North America’s tolling requirements.
To ensure the successful delivery of this Project, SICE has created a Toll Competence Center in North America, a new Tolling Division that has led the company to this success. In addition to the project’s daily management, SICE’s team has performed thousands of test cases over the system, including performance testing with traffic samples of more than ten times the expected number of daily transactions. From now on, SICE’s Tolling Competence Center in North America will provide maintenance and support services to Blueridge Transportation Group (the Developer of the SH288 Express Toll Lanes Project) and will lead the development of new opportunities in the North American tolling industry.
The installation of the SH288 Open Road Tolling included without limitation the communication network, 11 tolling zones, 14 tolling points, all tolling structures, the Dynamic Pricing Module, the Tolling Operation Backoffice, and its integration with both TxDOT and HCTRA tolling commercial Back Offices. The project also included the ITS systems with over 80 MVDS (Microwave Vehicle Detection Systems), 40 CCTV Cameras, 30 Bluetooth devices for travel times, 10 Variable Message Signs, the Trafic Management Center, and its integration with the TxDOT TMC.
