The Kansas Turnpike spans 236 miles, carrying portions of the state’s most heavily traveled interstates through scenic prairie vistas, rolling hills and verdant pasturelands.

In 2014, the Kansas Turnpike Authority (KTA) began studying how it could modernize its system by shifting from manual toll collection to all-electronic tolling (AET). At the time, KTA had already introduced cashless lanes and electronic payments via KTAG — its toll transponder — at all entry and exit locations. However, traditional toll booths remained in operation across much of the roadway. 

Based on this study, KTA developed a strategic plan to ensure a seamless transition to cashless tolling by 2024. The agency selected HNTB as the project’s designer.

“KTA has always been a customer-focused organization,” said Gretchen Ivy, HNTB’s central states office leader. "Leadership wanted advanced technologies to further enhance customer convenience, address its aging equipment and retiring workforce, improve safety and capitalize on the industry's movement toward cashless tolling."

That customer-first mindset aligned with a growing demand for modernization, driven in part by travelers familiar with evolving tolling systems across the country.

“Out-of-state travelers — an estimated half of turnpike customers — and Kansans traveling in other parts of the country were bringing back their expectations and experiences,” said Bruce Meisch, KTA director of technology and the cashless conversion program manager. “As toll roads across the country began moving to cashless tolling, customers increasingly asked when Kansas would do the same.”

By the Numbers

Moving toward conversion

By 2019, KTA had made significant progress toward its KTAG usage goal, allowing the agency to target July 1, 2024, as its conversion date, establishing a phased design, construction and installation schedule that would minimize traffic flow impacts.

Site selection was integral in the design phase. KTA has a backbone of fiber running the length of the turnpike, much of which is in rural areas. HNTB strategically selected and designed the turnpike’s 18 new toll zone locations with 72 new overhead tolling gantries to tap into fiber splices and power source availability, a decision that reduced costs and installation complexity.

In urban areas, where bridge interchanges are close together, potential locations for the new gantries were limited. In these situations, designers selected locations that gave drivers time to read and respond to roadway signs and change lanes as they entered and exited the turnpike.

In construction, KTA maximized efficiencies and created cost savings by dividing construction into four regions and employing local contractors to complete the work across the project.

HNTB anticipated a significant increase in customer call volume at KTA’s call centers due to this conversion. To prepare, the firm supported KTA in hiring, strengthening the customer service training program, preparing organizationally for cashless customer service operations and implementing forecasting tools to ensure the surge could be managed efficiently.

Creating a proprietary system interface

To convert to fully cashless, KTA needed to expand the open road toll lanes it had established at its three highest-revenue-generating plazas to all lanes at all the toll zone locations along the turnpike. This system-wide rollout required significant changes and upgrades to KTA’s back-office infrastructure.

Typically, turnpike agencies outsource such large system interfaces. However, an analysis confirmed that KTA and its customers would benefit from the agency developing its own system interface. It also enabled KTA to upgrade its legacy customer service back-office system to a new platform, database and user experience. 

In the long term, the internally built system reduces costs and allows KTA to continue customizing it to address desired system enhancements and operational changes over time.

In response to customer feedback, KTA designed its system with a unique single-account design — uncommon in the tolling industry — that allows transponder and license plate-based customers to manage all their tolls in one account under the agency’s new toll payment system, DriveKS.