Client:
Riverside County Transportation Commission (RCTC)
Scope:
April 2021 - 2041
Solution:
End-to-end All-Electronic Tolling (AET), Dynamic Pricing, Roadside Operations, Back-Office System (BOS), and Customer Service Center (CSC) operations
The Challenge: Keeping Southern California's Busiest Express Lanes Moving, Funded and Accountable at Scale
Southern California's express lane corridors carry some of the highest traffic volumes in the United States. The State Route 91 (SR-91) Express Lanes serve 150,000 users daily; the I-15 Express Lanes add tens of thousands more. Traditional transportation funding cannot keep pace with the infrastructure investment these corridors require, making express lane revenue a critical mechanism for the region.
In 2016, the Riverside County Transportation Commission (RCTC) selected Kapsch TrafficCom to design, build, and operate the I-15 Express Lanes, a relationship that has since expanded to include Occupancy Detection System (ODS) integration on SR-91 and, in 2026, a consolidation of SR-91 back-office and customer service operations with the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA).
- Dynamic pricing at regional scale: Traffic volumes exceeding 325,000 vehicles per day across both corridors required a pricing engine capable of real-time congestion response, with integrated policy enforcement for High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV3+), motorcycle, and clean-air vehicle exemptions.
- California compliance requirements: California's tolling protocols (T21 and 6C) set strict standards for image capture quality, transaction auditability, and enforcement. Accuracy failures affect both revenue integrity and customer trust.
- Multi-corridor customer service: The I-15 and SR-91 Express Lanes are directly connected in Riverside County. Approximately 35 percent of customer service interactions involve both corridors, requiring a back-office architecture built to handle cross-corridor accounts from day one.
- Public financial accountability: All toll revenue is dedicated to building, operating, and improving the lanes. Financial controls and audit capabilities directly support RCTC's public reporting obligations.
Project Scope
End-to-End Express Lane Operations Across 50 Miles
Kapsch serves as prime contractor across 50 Express Lane miles: 15 miles on I-15 and 10 miles on the Riverside County portion of SR-91. The full scope covers:
- Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system: Roadside infrastructure and transaction processing
- Dynamic Pricing Engine (DPE): Real-time pricing with HOV policy enforcement
- Traffic Management System (TMS) and Traffic Operations Center (TOC): Day-to-day roadway and pricing operations
- Back-Office System (BOS): Account management, violation processing, financial controls, and interoperability with California tolling agencies
- Customer Service Center (CSC): Co-located with RCTC in Corona, CA
- Maintenance Online Management System (MOMS): Infrastructure maintenance management
- Occupancy Detection System (ODS): HOV compliance verification on SR-91 using imaging technology
This is about a partnership that's working. Our relationship with Kapsch has gone extraordinarily well. I go to IBTTA conferences and speak with colleagues at other toll agencies across the country. I've been in meetings with other CEOs that don't have the same experience - it's not so positive with their vendors. We have something that's working here, and I think it's outstanding.
Aaron Hake, Executive Director, Riverside County Transportation Commission
Solutions & Products
Dynamic Pricing and HOV Enforcement: The Dynamic Pricing Engine (DPE) is among the largest dynamically priced systems in California. It adjusts toll rates in real time and enforces HOV3+, motorcycle, and clean-air vehicle policies through integrated business rules rather than manual override, providing consistency at high transaction volumes.
Image Review and Audit: Vehicle Recognition (VRX) and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology handles image capture and license plate identification, supported by a dedicated review team in the RCTC Operations Center (ROC). A Digital Video Audit System (DVAS) provides independent transaction auditing. Power BI reporting gives RCTC direct visibility into system performance and financial data.
HOV Occupancy Detection: In 2025, Kapsch integrated an Occupancy Detection System on SR-91, one of the first deployments of this capability on a live revenue corridor. Invision imaging hardware and edge computing capture and score vehicle occupancy automatically, routing ambiguous transactions to manual review. Non-compliant HOV users are identified and removed from the lane pool, protecting paying customers and working toward lower toll rates over time. [Link to ODS mini-reference.]
Co-Located Operations Model: RCTC and Kapsch operate out of the same building in Corona, Calif. RCTC consultants work directly within the customer service center alongside Kapsch staff, with shared visibility into system performance and operational priorities.
Impact
100% Success
across 14 key performance indicators (KPIs) since system launch
6.3 million+ transactions
and 3.1 million trips processed in December 2024 alone
Zero Priority 1 incidents
at revenue launch on April 14, 2021
Contract extended through 2041
An early extension reflecting RCTC's confidence in long-term performance