Lockheed Corp. Wins Contract for Automated Toll Collection System

County tollway officials on Thursday selected Lockheed Corp. to build and manage an electronic toll collection system for three South County toll roads.

The first automated toll collection system will be installed on the Foothill tollway, a three-mile stretch of which may open to the public next summer, between Portola Parkway South near Mission Viejo and Portola Parkway North in Lake Forest.

The contract is estimated to be worth about $600 million over 20 years, but the exact price remains to be negotiated. Hughes Aircraft Co. was among the firms that sought the contract.

The Lockheed system is based on its so-called Smart Card, which resembles a credit card. The card is encoded with vehicle owner information and, when placed in a small radio transponder, can exchange data with computers monitoring the roadway.

Receivers mounted above the road or in the pavement communicate with the transponder, according to Lockheed officials, recording the locations where a car enters or exits the toll road and where a fee was paid.

Toll amounts are transmitted back to the dashboard-mounted transponder, and a record of transactions is written onto the card. Camera systems record images of license plates in order to trace violators.

AT&T; is a major partner in the Lockheed system. The Lockheed team will also be responsible for manual fare collection, security, maintenance and the transfer of toll revenue to tollway agency bank accounts.