Big Ideas Take a Village
About four years ago, in 2021, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) identified an opportunity to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of toll operations in the Austin and Houston areas. Specifically, TxDOT wanted to evaluate:
Utilizing another agency's existing infrastructure to reduce operating costs,
Using another agency's collections process to improve unpaid toll revenue collection, and
Creating an improved customer experience in both Austin and Houston through a single website, a single phone number, and possibly a single invoice.
To achieve this, TxDOT initiated a Request for Information (RFI). The North Texas Tollway Authority (NTTA) and Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) submitted responses to the RFI and HCTRA was selected through a thorough discovery and evaluation period to provide the transition and operational services.
HCTRA leadership was significantly interested in this RFI because the agency already processed tolls for Montgomery County, Brazoria County, the Blueridge Transportation Group, and Houston Metro. They also saw value in the opportunity to regain some processing efficiencies for the Grand Parkway toll road in the Harris County Region.
This type of project at this scale had never been performed before. I was fortunate to be placed in the role of TxDOT's Project Manager to deliver this work for the State of Texas.
The Challenges
TxDOT operated the majority of the Grand Parkway in the Houston area, where over 70% of users were HCTRA EZ TAG customers. However, the existing system required transactions to be routed to Austin for processing and then sent back to HCTRA for posting and payment processing, creating inefficiencies and delays. This cumbersome process necessitated a strategic reassessment to streamline operations and deliver improved service to users.
With HCTRA processing the Grand Parkway transactions directly through HCTRA's back office, HCTRA could reduce operating costs for both HCTRA and TxDOT. By including the Austin transactions, TxDOT customers traveling their Texas-owned and operated toll roads would be provided a streamlined customer service experience and a single negotiated price per transaction.
The project involved a variety of complexities, including:
Revamping Revenue Processes: The existing master lockbox and custodial account were replaced to enhance revenue processing efficiency across shared TxDOT projects.
Implementation Services Contract: A comprehensive contract was developed to define the scope of services and the delivery timeline clearly.
Interagency Tolling Services Agreement (TSA): An interagency tolling services agreement was established to ensure seamless operations beyond the initial implementation phase. Due to the scale of the project, this proved difficult.
System Integration: HCTRA integrated two roadside systems and a private concession system into its back-office processing, managing over 1M transactions daily.
Data Migration: The project required the smooth migration of between 800,000 and 2.5 million customer accounts and their associated data.
Customer Communication: A robust marketing strategy was devised to inform customers about the transition.
Legal and Compliance Validation: Close attention was paid to legality and compliance between the agencies and governing entities.
Unexpected Discoveries: This process revealed undocumented business rules, undeployed data processes, and data integrity issues.
The creation and implementation of a new custodial agreement was especially challenging. HCTRA had not operated a custodial agreement like TxDOT had for the last 10+ years, and the existing TxDOT agreement required notice to and approval from key organizations that did not have a quick review and approval cycle. There was also a possibility that the change may invoke the Texas Legislative Budget Board's review. Thankfully, it was crafted and deployed in a way that fulfilled the legal obligations within the current TxDOT custodial agreement and was able to be executed by Harris County and a participating bank. HCTRA's adept finance team worked with the bank to deploy the changes needed to fulfill beneficiary obligations.
It was a tough project, indeed. One of the toughest so far in my career because of the overall scope complexity, the latent politics in the State related to tolling, the timing to the upcoming legislative session, and the transfer of operations from Austin to Houston. I was working with TxDOT staff who were giving away over 15 years of operations and customers who they sometimes dealt with on a daily basis. HCTRA had to onboard data and integrate into TxDOT’s systems that sometimes felt like having a family member move into your home. Even when you know someone is moving into your home, they disrupt your daily routines, such as walking around in your PJ’s on a Saturday or how you manage the rotation of getting your dirty dishes into the dishwasher. Fortunately, we had a shared vision for the project's success. We knew that once we got through the transition, the customers would ultimately see the benefit.
Methodologies for Success
Several conversations, processes, and decisions led to the project's ultimate success.
Best practices from TxDOT's Project Management Office and adherence to the Project Management Institute framework equipped the team with the tools for effective project execution. For example, there was regular collaboration and communication at the leadership level, and, as project manager, I had biweekly meetings with TxDOT's CFO and CIO to focus on mitigating key risks and ensuring that the project progressed efficiently and without bureaucratic obstacles.
The project directors were experienced and capable staff within TxDOT's Information Technology and Project Finance Divisions. A Steering Committee was created for issue escalation, though it was never required, as any risk or issue was resolved with the support of the project directors and my tower leads.
A deep analysis of data mapping between the systems led the TxDOT team to recommend limiting what was to be migrated to HCTRA. By focusing on account demographics, account activity, and payment information, and combining through the transmission of a starting account balance and three years of account statements, HCTRA would have enough information to effectively service their newly migrated customers. This decision improved data extraction, transformation, and loading. It decreased the data set size through trial migration and incremental and final migrations. It also simplified the data validation scripting and shortened the time customers could not manage their accounts.
The scheduled testing of the network integration, the roadside system redirection, and trial migration also helped lay the framework for the project's success. For example, the roadside team performed structured tests with a small copy of live data. Then, they moved into a daily transfer of real data for 30 days. They then expanded that data set processing from the lane to the back office. Finally, the team worked with the data migration team for posting to a subset of migrated accounts. These efforts yielded a nearly seamless transition at go-live from pre-production to production server processing and account posting.
Other aspects of the scope of work that contributed to our success included:
Active Project Management: Continuous schedule review and validation of project schedule logic.
Tailored Scope: Developing a practical scope of work that matched the capabilities of both agencies.
Thorough Review of Business Rules: Ensuring compliance with regulations and policies from both agencies.
Proactive Coordination: Early establishment of data transfer environments and primary/secondary network connectivity.
The Final Solution
An implementation services agreement was officially executed in late October 2023, marking the beginning of a rigorous 16-month schedule. The legislative session of 2025 loomed, necessitating a timely and effective execution of the project.
HCTRA proposed a go-live plan in the summer of 2024 following collaborative discussions with key TxDOT tower leads. While the initial project schedule called for the lanes to be integrated into HCTRA, this would result in a period of increased customer invoicing. The alternative concept migrated accounts first and lanes immediately afterward. This simplified when and how TxDOT's Administrative Code changes would be applied, streamlined the customer experience from a billing and invoicing perspective, simplified data reconciliation, and increased customer service representatives' ability to support account holders.
The project went live in November 2024 with positive feedback and press coverage. Over 850,000 accounts were migrated from TxDOT to HCTRA.
In Conclusion
The goals for this project were clear – reduce operational costs, improve toll revenue collection, enhance the overall customer experience – and I believe we accomplished them. What I am most proud of though is that I have had multiple people ask me if we ever went live. In an industry with many tumultuous large-scale deployments, the fact that this project was implemented without much fanfare or pushback is a testament to both the TxDOT and HCTRA teams and our ability to work together for a shared goal.