What Went Wrong with SR-520 Tolling: Audit Report Issued

Failures in management, technology and risk-assessment on the part of the Washington State Department of Transportation contributed to the nine-month delay in the start of tolling on the State Route 520 Bridge, according to an audit report released Aug. 2, 2013 by the State Auditor's Office.

The State Auditor's Office said that the goal of the report was to highlight "lessons learned" in the nearly nine-month delay of the project.

Tolling for the project originally was slated to begin early April 2011, but didn't start until late December 2011, resulting in questions being raised by the public about the electronic tolling project and several high-profile changes of date over a period of several months.

The delay put off the start of the collection of $1 billion in tolls to pay off 30- and 40-year bonds used in the construction of State Route 520, including the construction of a new bridge deck. 

The tolling system is entirely electronic, which means that it is payable via an electronic transponder, also known as the Good-to-Go system, or through the mail, after the tolling system takes a photo of a vehicle's license plate. The same system can be used to pay tolls on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and high occupancy toll lanes on State Route 167.

According to the State Auditor's Report, the WSDOT Tolling Division didn't adequately prepare for the risks in creating the new tolling system, which had to be designed and built from scratch by contractor Electronic Transaction Consultants because of all the state's requirements for accountability and billing.

The project team also felt pressure to meet a deadline in order to keep a $154 million federal grant, $86.1 million of which was earmarked for creation of the new tolling system and active traffic management strategies (known to drivers as the variable speed signs) on the bridges on 520 and Interstate 90.

While the tolling division had a plan for the project, not every deadline was enforced nor every penalty applied, according to the State Auditor's Report. According to the report, WSDOT managers were more concerned about getting the project finished than enforcing Electronic Transaction Consultants pay a $300,000 penalty for every week of delay. 

WSDOT managers also told the auditor's office that there was concern that enforcing the penalty would make the company financially unstable and place further risk on the project failing. Instead, the Electronic Transaction Consultants and the Washington State Department of Transportation settled last year for $6.4 million.

In the Washington State Department of Transportation's response, which was included in the report, the transportation agency said that it is improving its project management processes, and reviewing its decision-making authority.

However, Transportation Secretary Lynn Peterson also added in her formal response that other parts of the tolling project went more smoothly than the start of tolling, including the financial planning and the migration of existing accounts to the new system. She also added that the WSDOT is now seen as a leader in all-electronic tolling nationwide.

The Transportation department also said that while the postponed tolling start date delayed the collection of $40 million over the eight months, that the delay just offset the end of the toll collection, rather than resulting in the state losing that money. The Transportation department also said that postponement had the effect of allowing the department to borrow money through bonds with more favorable rates than it would have originally.

You can download your own copy of the State Auditor's Office's report on the State Route 520 Bridge tolling project from its website.