WSDOT reaches accord with toll company

SEATTLE – The Washington Transportation Department has reached a settlement with the company that was late in setting up tolling on the Highway 520 floating bridge on Lake Washington, and it now has confidence in its partner as tolling expands in the state, said Craig Stone, Toll Division director.

“We clearly had challenges during 2011 and the transition,” Stone said. “Fundamentally we think we have a solid system for the future.”

The agreement announced Wednesday settles claims and counterclaims with the ETC Corp., of Richardson, Texas, and avoids possible litigation over the delay as well as problems in processing tolls on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

The settlement is worth $6.4 million to the state – $2.4 million in reduced monthly payments to ETC and $4 million for a software license that would allow the state to operate the tolling system on its own, the department said.

ETC pays no cash and gets a four-year contract extension worth $29 million, the company said. ETC’s original five-year contract with the state in 2009 was worth $23 million.

Tolling began in late December on the floating bridge instead of the spring of 2011 as planned because of delays implementing technology that makes tollbooths unnecessary. The all-electronic system collects tolls at highway speeds through Good To Go windshield stickers or through license-recognition photos, which automatically generate a bill that is mailed to drivers.

ETC said the state was partly responsible for the delays in Highway 520 tolling due to changes in the scope of the work.

The tolling is expected to raise $1 billion of the $4.65 billion cost of replacing the 49-year-old bridge and other improvements on 13 miles of Highway 520 between Seattle and Redmond. The span is one of the longest floating bridges in the world at over a mile.