EDITOR’S NOTE: This was originally published as part of a March 30 e-newsletter to constituents.
By Terry Gaasterland
On March 29, the SANDAG board heard a report on toll system failures from the independent auditor. Here’s an important takeaway for Del Mar, as well as everyone in the region:
All of us who use San Diego toll roads must check our FasTrak and toll bills carefully this year for unexpected tolls along state Route 125.
SR-125 tolls have deeper problems than previously thought. The losses amount to $3 million of $50 million in annual revenues, but the implications are far more significant.
What is SR-125?
SR-125 connects the only commercial port of entry in the San Diego area to the regional freeway network. It carries international freight traffic — commercial freight. For 10 miles north-south in Chula Vista, SR-125 also carries local residential vehicles.
The tolls repay loans that bought SR-125 from the private company that built it in 2011. The purchase price was $341.5 million — one-third of the private company’s building cost. The purchase was a good opportunity.
Who is affected by the tolling software failures?
Fifty-five percent of toll road user accounts have been mischarged since June 6, 2022 — that’s 48,620 toll road user accounts out of 88,445.
Sometimes, one account’s toll fees are applied to another account registered with SANDAG’s toll system.
That is why we must check our FasTrak bills for SR-125 tolls.
Until the toll system is replaced at the end of the year, the software bugs will continue to impact future toll charges on SR-125.
Fixing the SR-125 toll system will be important in planning the new Otay Mesa East border crossing. This $1.13 billion project will have automated cross-border tolls and traffic with international transactions and currencies.
What went wrong at the very beginning?
The contract to install toll collection software that would charge people for using SR-125 was awarded to a company with software that was not ready.
The independent auditor’s report indicated that when ETAN Tolling Technology was awarded a contract for a toll road software system five years ago, the understanding was that they had a software system built and nearly thoroughly tested (90%).
SANDAG’s outside consultant, HNTB Corporation, was awarded a contract to oversee ETAN’s work.
In fact, ETAN was still building the toll software, and three years of delays ensued. On June 6, 2022, it went live late while still in testing and incomplete. Bugs and glitches arose immediately.
Multiple checkpoints showed that ETAN was falling short from the beginning, yet no one raised questions with the board.
Outcome? Already, the SANDAG CFO has resigned. The SANDAG CEO has accepted his letter of retirement. The board wants answers:
When the system went live on June 6, 2022, it was known that there were bugs and glitches. Who knew?
The board — and the current interim CEO — first heard about the problems in October 2023, over 15 months later. What took so long?
In July 2022, HTNB said they no longer recommended approval of ETAN’s invoices. SANDAG had delegated HNTB to oversee ETAN. Who in SANDAG continues to approve ETAN’s invoices?
When was it clear that ETAN was in the midst of developing new software? Who knew?
What’s next?
A closed board session will be held next week to discuss remedies. The independent auditor will then conduct an investigation to answer the questions above.
Important question: Will this board adopt an explicit policy of acknowledging, accepting and fixing software-based issues as soon as they are known?
This is not the only software-based or data-analysis issue that has or will arise.
This is an opportunity to prepare a transparent and timely policy in the future. Let’s be open to finding ways to learn about mistakes and shortcomings early, not late, and then correct them.
Deputy Mayor Terry Gaasterland serves on the Del Mar City Council and represents the city on the SANDAG board.
