The concession holder of South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) has installed automatic license plate readers (ALPR) to enhance its toll collection system that will allow for barrier-less toll plazas.
In a statement, SMC SLEX Inc. said the upgrade is in line with the government’s directive to implement contactless toll collection and barrier-less plazas along expressways.
Along with RFID tags, ALPR cameras cross-reference the entry and exit of vehicles by reading and recording their license plates for accurate charging of their toll, the company said.
The company also said it is upgrading its servers to further improve their capacity to handle the growing number of vehicles using the facility.
The upgrade is part of the efforts to future-proof the tollway that serves as the main expressway in Region 4A, which contributes about 20% of the country’s gross domestic product.
SMC SLEX said that some 20 bridges along the SLEX carriageway are also currently being expanded, to further prevent traffic bottlenecks that result to vehicle buildup and slowdowns.
The expansion of these bridges aligns with the new six-by-six lane configuration of the carriageway to accommodate increasing vehicle traffic in SLEX, which serves high growth provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, and Quezon.
In 2022, the company implemented the Seamless Southern Tollways project, which reduced the number of stops motorists had to do when traveling along the Skyway System, SLEX, and Star Tollway.
The project likewise led to the decommissioning of the Calamba Main Toll Plaza — which used to be the terminus of SLEX — and SLEX Greenfield Toll Plaza, the terminus of Toll Road 3, which connects SLEX to Star Tollway at Sto. Tomas, Batangas.
Currently, the toll plazas are pass-through lanes and are scheduled to be demolished in line with the SLEX widening project.
