Attendees to next week’s (December 7-10) ITS America Annual Meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, can look forward to an exclusive technical tour of the nearby I-77 Express Lanes Operations Center.
Taking place on Tuesday, December 7 from 1pm – 3pm, the technical tour will be hosted by the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), the North Carolina Turnpike Authority (NCTA), and I-77 Mobility Partners.
Attendeess will discover exactly how the express lanes are operated while touring the building that supports the operations of the I-77 Express Lanes, a 27-mile public-private partnership (PPP) project that was opened in 2019 as a joint effort between NCDOT, NCTA, and I-77 Mobility Partners.
The I-77 Express Lanes building houses the express lanes traffic management center, maintenance, and patrol functions, and the toll system operations. The tour will also encompass the NC Quick Pass (the toll program of the NCTA) walk-in location where attendees will be able to observe how the NCTA provides customer service for express lane users, how customers can purchase a pre-paid transponder to pay for tolls, and how some customers pay their toll invoices in person. Both parts of the tour will allow time for Q&A toward the end.
Busses will be provided from the convention center to the building and the tour will last about two hours in total with transit time. There is a fee associated to attend the Techincal Tour. Purchase tickets here.
This tour goes hand-in-hand with an Executive Session scheduled later in the conference on December 9 at 1pm. The panel will include the Secretary of N.C. Department of Transportation (Eric Boyette), NCTA executive director (J.J. Eden), and the I-77 Mobility Partners CEO (Jose Espinosa) and will be moderated by the NCDOT state traffic engineer, Kevin Lacy.
JJ Eden is a regular columnist for TTi magazine. Don’t miss his latest insight in the new December 2021 edition.Â
