The agency on Friday announced Tennessee-based technology company TransCore has been selected for a $507 million, seven-year contract to “design, build, operate and maintain” the tolling infrastructure that will enforce New York City’s congestion pricing scheme.
The tolling system will not go live until at least January 2021 — and the prices and exemptions will be set by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board no earlier than Nov. 15, 2020.
TransCore’s technology will need to track every single vehicle entering Manhattan south of 61st St.; cars driving on the West Side Highway and FDR Drive will be given a pass.
The car-taxing system will need to generate enough money to pump $15 billion into the MTA’s next five-year capital plan, which aims to aggressively modernize the subway’s signaling system and add accessibility features to an additional 66 subway stations.
“This nation-leading program brings us one step closer to making New York a more environmentally sustainable and economically vibrant city," MTA chairman Pat Foye said of the congestion pricing scheme. “Quite simply, it makes New York City a better place to live, work, and visit.”
TransCore’s car-taxing technology will be hung on existing street poles along the congestion zone, according to an MTA press release. Preliminary documents obtained by the Daily News in August show the new infrastructure will likely include 40-foot-long arms hanging off light poles above city streets.
The infrastructure will not include unsightly gantries that could harm the “character of neighborhoods,” an MTA spokesman said in August.
The MTA has yet to announce the members of a six-person Traffic Mobility Review Board, a group mandated by state law to consult on the rollout of congestion pricing.
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