SICE (Sociedad Ibérica de Construcciones Eléctricas), the Spanish systems integration and technology company, has been awarded a major contract in Bolivia, as the South American country takes the first steps toward upgrading its highway infrastructure and operations.
The contract has been awarded by Bolivia’s highway authority, Administradora Boliviana de Carreteras (ABC), which is responsible for planning and management of the national road network, including assessment, design, construction, upgrade, maintenance and operation.
SICE will be responsible for the construction of a series of vehicle size and weight-control checkpoints, toll collection stations, and a central operations control center. The company will also perform a comprehensive transportation study that will cover the country’s entire road network. The contract is expected to be carried out over 13 months and has been financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The scope of the project includes the design, construction, installation and commissioning of weighing and toll stations, control and monitoring centers, and a laboratory for the verification of the weigh-station equipment and data. The majority of the work will be carried out on Highways 1 and 4, covering the route from the capital, La Paz, to the cities of Oruro and Cochabamba. Four control stations will be installed to monitor all classes of traffic. Each station will be equipped with: high-, medium-, and low-speed weighing systems; a three-dimensional (3D) vehicle classification and measurement system; automatic RFID (radio frequency identification) vehicle identification systems; automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) equipment; and an evader and leakage control system.
SICE will also build four toll collection plazas on the route, which will be equipped with toll booths on four lanes, with fees collected through RFID toll-tags or cash payment. The company will also provide back-office systems, a central data center, one contingency data center, and two toll monitoring centers. SICE will be responsible for the construction, maintenance and operation of all the vehicle monitoring and control stations, as well as toll collection facilities, which will have their locations georeferenced in the national data center.
SICE will also provide six mobile weighing stations that will be used as part of the transportation study of the whole Bolivia’s road network. The research is essential for the ABC, since the lack of effective equipment for the control of freight and passenger transport is one of the main causes for the rapid deterioration of the country’s roads.
The study will generate national traffic information, including vehicle weights and dimensions, in order to establish effective control and inspection strategies for the ABC concerning vehicle classification and toll collection.
