The state plans to award a contract for up to $20.9 million as it prepares to expand a program that issues tickets to drivers caught on camera speeding in highway work zones.
The equipment and management services award to ACS State & Local Solutions Inc. of Germantown, which holds the contract for the existing program, is scheduled to go to the Board of Public Works for approval next week. The contract would permit the state to expand the work zone enforcement program that was authorized by the General Assembly last year.
The contract would be guaranteed for two years at $8 million, and provides for three optional renewal years at just over $4 million each.
Under the contract, ACS would provide vehicles, cameras and computer services for processing tickets, which carry a $40 fine. Under the 2009 law, camera-generated tickets cannot be issued unless a driver is going 12 mph or more over the speed limit.
The contract was jointly awarded by the State Highway Administration, Maryland State Police and the Maryland Transportation Authority Police to ACS. State officials said six companies expressed interest in the contract but only ACS submitted a bid.
SHA spokeswoman Lori Rakowski said the contract would allow a modest expansion of the current pilot program. She said that program has used two camera-equipped vehicles, rotated among work zones. Under the new contract, that would increase to three vehicles, with a possible fourth next March.
The state initially deployed speed cameras at three work zones: Interstate 95 near Beltsville where the interchange with the Intercounty Connector is being built; I-95 north and east of Baltimore where express tolls lanes are being added, and the Beltway where the Charles Street bridge is being replaced.
Rakowski said the state is adding a location on the Beltway at Liberty Road, site of another bridge replacement project. Signs warning drivers of the speed camera zone have already been posted, but the cameras will not be activated until June 24.
The new contract calls for ACS to supply laser-based speed detection systems that are considered an improvement over the radar systems that were originally deployed.
"Laser is felt to be greatly more accurate in detecting speed across multiple lanes," Rakowski said.