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Website, app for I-66 tolls failed to display price, some drivers paid $39 for trip

January 17, 2018 at 8:38 a.m. EST
Under the HOT lanes plan, commuters who do not meet the carpool requirements for Interstate 66 travel inside the Beltway will have the option of paying tolls. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

Some drivers along Interstate 66 in Northern Virginia paid a $39 toll in Tuesday morning’s rush hour, just as the system was also having a technical glitch of prices not showing up online and on a mobile app.

The problem happened between 8:47 a.m. and 9:30 a.m., according to officials with the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Michelle Holland, a spokeswoman for VDOT, said there was a “maintenance issue” that a vendor, Transcore, which operates the tolling system, had with the system.

The tolls are in place along a roughly nine-mile stretch of I-66 inside the Beltway, operating on a dynamic pricing system that changes every six minutes based on demand. Since the lanes debuted on Dec. 4, tolls have topped out at $44. They are meant to help alleviate traffic on the highway during peak usage times.

The toll on I-66 hit a high of $44 this morning

On Tuesday morning, the $39 toll was paid by some drivers who went the entire nine miles, Holland said. It wasn’t known how many drivers paid the toll, as it takes three days for VDOT to process those details. Holland said by the Tuesday afternoon commute the system was operating normally with prices posted on signs, online and on the app with no troubles.

Holland said even with the glitch, roadway signs showing prices for tolls were working. The problem, she said, was that the app and online tools were “having an issue” and at one point not showing a price, reading “Data Not Available.”

“The tolling algorithm was working,” Holland said. “The communications system was offline in conveying that information online but the pricing was on the signs.”

She said Tuesday morning’s rush hour had higher traffic volumes than officials generally have seen since tolling started.

Holland said she didn’t know the reason for Tuesday’s congestion but suspected that because it was the day after a long holiday weekend, “most people are back at work and school.”

She said VDOT is working with its contractor to determine what happened and to “make sure we build redundancies so we can prevent this from happening in the future.” No refunds will be issued as a result of the glitch. No refunds were being issued to motorists.

Only single-occupancy vehicles are subject to tolls. Cars with two or more people on board ride free, however they must have an E-ZPass Flex set to carpool mode.