SMC Tollways inching closer to barrier-free plazas

SMC Infrastructure continues to push with the government’s directive to implement contactless and barrier-less toll plazas across the expressways the conglomerate is operating.

The tollway subsidiary of San Miguel Corporation (SMC) has completed the installation of AI-enabled automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras across SLEX, SCTEX, TPLEX, and STAR Tollway, inching closer to realizing barrier-free toll gates in the country.

A total of 522 ALPR cameras were installed at the toll plazas and gantries across the 220 km expressway network. These cameras are designed to work alongside the existing Autosweep RFID system for faster vehicle throughput and cross-matches data from RFID tags to ensure the accuracy of data, and correct toll is debited from the transactions.

The ALPR cameras serve as a secondary validation system to supplement the Autosweep RFID tags for toll collection. Vehicle information will then be sent to servers where AI will cross-match the information — ensuring accuracy and enabling faster throughput.

While all SMC toll plazas are now all equipped with ALPR cameras, it’s understood that the toll operator continues to refine the system through more testing.

“There are still a number of key milestones that government needs to reach before full implementation of barrier-less expressways. But essentially, in line with government mandates, we’ve made the necessary investment and our barrier-less system is already physically in place and ready to be used at any time,” said SMC chairman and CEO Ramon S. Ang.