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Client:
Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT)
Duration:
2010 to present (15+ years)
Solutions:
Statewide electronic tolling and express lanes program
Kapsch TrafficCom has helped Washington State manage some of the nation's busiest roadways for more than 15 years, delivering the technology behind the I-405 and SR 167 Express Toll Lanes and expanding that system statewide. The partnership began in 2010 with a first-of-its-kind open road tolling system on SR 520 for the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge. Today, Kapsch manages all tolling within the Seattle Metropolitan area for WSDOT, encompassing 37 miles of express lanes and two additional roadways and overseeing more than 15 million transactions a month.
Bridges, tunnels, and greenfield express lanes each run on a standardized design, which is constantly tested and proven before applied to the next roadway. That consistency has let the partnership expand project after project, building on lessons learned to deliver each new roadway with confidence .
When I-405 launched in September 2015, the system met or surpassed WSDOT's performance criteria for all system KPIs including vehicle detection, automatic vehicle identification, image capture, and digital video audit operations, setting a new bar for all other WSDOT roadways.
"WSDOT trusted us with a single roadway, and that trust is what let this partnership grow into a statewide program. When their contractor handed off three to six tolling sites at a time, our teams matched that pace so the schedule never slipped. That's what a real partnership looks like: showing up, project after project, and never losing sight of the drivers counting on us."
JB Kendrick, President, Kapsch TrafficCom North America
Challenges
Scaling Tolling Technology to Keep Pace With Washington's Growth
Washington's fastest-growing corridors are also its most congested. WSDOT projects a 33 percent population increase around I-405 alone by 2040, and more than half a million drivers already travel the corridor daily with commute times that can more than double at peak hours. Keeping people moving without simply paving over more of the region meant finding a tolling strategy that could work across a wide range of infrastructure and hold up as the program expanded.
Infrastructure diversity: A floating bridge, a bored tunnel, greenfield extensions, and legacy HOV-to-HOT conversions all needed a single tolling approach reliable enough to run each of them.
Community and multimodal balance: WSDOT gathered driver, transit, and pedestrian input through public polls, surveys, and working groups, and needed a system flexible enough to reflect that feedback in its design.
Revenue assurance at scale: Every new roadway added to the program had to meet the same performance bar for vehicle detection, image capture, and uptime, without putting existing operations at risk.
Specifically for I-405, this meant addressing commuter frustration over unpredictable travel times, the financial impact of a new toll on daily drivers, effects on neighboring communities, and balancing mobility for cyclists and pedestrians alongside vehicle traffic.
Project Scope
Today, Kapsch serves as WSDOT's statewide tolling technology provider across 37 miles of express lane and five roadways. The full scope covers:
- Automatic Vehicle Identification (AVI) and Video Image Capture: In-lane equipment identifies vehicles by transponder read or license plate image at every toll point.
- Trip Building Engine: Groups transactions from multiple toll points into a single, accurate billable trip, whether or not the vehicle carries a tag.
- Digital Video Audit System (DVAS): Zone-based audit at every toll point supports transaction accuracy and dispute resolution.
- Host System: Aggregates transaction and toll rate data across the network to support billing and reporting.
- Kapsch Remote Operations and Maintenance System: Provides WSDOT's operations and revenue teams complete audit and reconciliation capability across the network.
These are deployed across several roadways:
- I-405 Express Toll Lanes: A 30-mile Express Toll Lanes corridor east of Seattle, I-405 has been extended and expanded four times since its original 2015 launch, growing to more than 30 toll gantries and 70 lanes. Today, the corridor includes Renton to Bellevue (RTB) express toll lanes and the 85th Street Interchange, a triple-deck interchange with direct express lanes toll lane and transit access.
- SR 167 Express Toll Lanes: 17 toll gantries and 17 lanes across the Valley Freeway, transitioned from HOT to Express Toll Lane operation with an upgraded image capture system.
- SR 99 Tunnel: A bored, double-decker tunnel beneath downtown Seattle, variably tolled by time of day and axle count since 2019.
- SR 509 Extension: A greenfield project introducing axle-based pricing, with 2 toll gantries and 4 total lanes.
- SR 520 Evergreen Point Floating Bridge: The program's founding project began in 2010. Read the full story.
Solutions & Products
A Platform Built to Run Without Interruption
Kapsch built one tolling system that could be deployed repeatedly at every new roadway WSDOT added to the program, rather than starting over each time.
- End-to-End Automated Tolling: The platform manages the tolling process automatically, from the moment a vehicle enters a toll zone through to the final trip record. A transponder read or a captured license plate image starts the transaction, the Trip Building Engine assembles it into a complete trip, and the trip is billed based on WSDOT’s business rules.
- Zero-Downtime Reliability: Every site runs synchronized, parallel-redundant equipment, so a single hardware failure never interrupts revenue collection or leaves a gap in the audit trail. The Kapsch operations team manages hardware upgrades across the network as technology evolves, so WSDOT benefits from newer technology without a complete system overhaul.
- Full Operational Visibility: Kapsch's remote operations and maintenance system gives WSDOT's operations and revenue teams complete audit and reconciliation capability across the network, so every transaction can be traced and every performance issue caught before it affects revenue.
Impact
Fifteen Years of Growing Trust
WSDOT's tolling program has grown from a single bridge to a statewide network because each expansion has performed.
High-volume performance
SR 167 alone processes an estimated 1.2 million trips and 4 million transactions a month.
Consistent, on-schedule delivery
SR 509 completed Factory Acceptance Testing in November 2024 with zero punchlist items, one of several milestones delivered on schedule as the program expanded.
Proven since day one
I-405's Express Toll Lanes launched in September 2015 and quickly delivered measurable results for commuters. Launch data showed a 10% increase in public transit use, a 40% increase in express lane usage, speeds of 45 mph or faster 90% of the time, and an average peak toll under $4.
Expandable by design
The platform's COTS-based, modular architecture has let WSDOT add new roadways to the program without redesigning the system each time, reducing both implementation cost and risk as the network has grown.
