Tollway Agency Fills Gap Left by Lockheed

The engineering firm Lockheed Martin may be parting ways with the Orange County toll roads, but those green-suited staffers who busily collect change at the network’s toll booths are staying put.

On Tuesday, the Transportation Corridor Agencies signed contracts with several companies that will take over some of the duties of the departing Lockheed. One of those firms, PRWT Services Inc., had staffed the toll booths under a subcontract with Lockheed and will now be under direct contract with the TCA. The contract is worth $4.6 million a year.

Toll officials have also hired a tollway technology firm, TransCore Inc., to maintain toll-lane sensor systems, electronic road signs, closed circuit cameras and system software. The contract also requires TransCore to propose an upgrade plan for the agency’s toll collection system that would save $1 million a year. TCA will pay the firm $4.2 million in the first year.

Last week, toll officials contracted with Chase Manhattan Bank for roughly $10 million to handle customer telephone calls, parcel out the ubiquitous FasTrack transponders and move customer accounts onto the Internet.

Lockheed announced this summer that it wanted out of its TCA contract two years early because it was losing money running the toll roads. Lockheed claimed the loss was due to faulty traffic projections. TCA officials disputed this claim but said they were also growing increasingly dissatisfied with the contractor’s quality of service.