News

Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia select five candidates for construction of Viapass for HGVs. The Regions establish Viapass, the inter-regional institution for road charging.

The Regions of Belgium have selected five consortia to compete for the contract for designing, building, financing, maintaining and operating the Viapass toll system for Heavy Goods Vehicles. The selection was made after a competitive public tender procedure.
After thorough proceedings based on public tender legislation, after the legal standstill period, and with a favourable outcome of appeal procedures before the Conseil d’État, and with the help of a consultant, the Regions have selected the following consortia of companies:

  • The combination Xerox – Meridiam Infrastructure – CFE – Vinci Concessions
  • The combination T-Systems – Belgacom – Strabag
  • The combination ViApia (Atos Worldline – Sanef)
  • The combination Traxia (bpost – Thales Belgium – Autostrade per l’Italia)
  • The combination BelGoVerde (Egis Projects – IBM – Brisa)

The selected consortia will receive the tender documents which will serve as a guideline for submitting offers. The selected consortia will have the opportunity to make a bid for designing, building, financing, maintaining and operating the Viapass toll system for Heavy Goods Vehicles.
Further negotiations may follow this phase. A final candidate should be selected around spring time 2014. A contract will be closed with the preferred bidder, based on a final offer. Construction of the Viapass system for HGVs wil start immediately after the contract close.
According to current planning, the Viapass system for trucks would be operational in 2016.

Agreement between the Regions

The Governments of Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels have also approved a comprehensive co-operation agreement for the introduction of the kilometre charge system for HGVs.
The Agreement will create a permanent framework for the operational co-operation between the Regions on road charging. It provides the rules by which the revenues from the tolls be divided between Regions, and rules on the costs of the system. The costs and revenues will be divided according to the number of kilometres charged in every Region.
The Agreement also provides a calculation method for the toll tariffs. These tariffs will be locked after designation of a private partner (the Single Service Provider) who will design, build, finance, maintain and operate the Viapass toll system for HGVs.
The Agreement will be put into law by the three regional parliaments. Prior to this, it will be submitted to relevant regional consultative bodies for advice.

Inter-regional institution for road charging

The Agreement also establishes the inter-regional institution Viapass, responsible for all government tasks related to road charging. Some examples:

  • Overseeing the work of the Single Service Provider
  • Monitoring and controlling the financial flows of the toll system
  • Adapting the toll network where needed (cf. to avoid unwanted traffic diversions)
  • Operational coordination of enforcement of the system, including detection of fraudulent drivers via technological means (cf; cameras)

The establishment of the single management authority Viapass is a cornerstone of the whole project. It will allow the Regions to engage in structural and long-term cooperation for development and management of common projects on road charging.