Workers start demolition and reconstruction of a provincial highway toll station in Beijing on Sept 3, 2019. (Photo: VCG)

Beijing’s first provincial highway toll station started demolition and reconstruction on Tuesday afternoon, marking the start of the city’s project to remove physical toll gates at provincial toll stations.

By the end of this year, eight highway provincial toll stations in the capital will complete reconstruction work, according to the city’s transport authorities Tuesday.

A special ETC door frame system will be built to replace the previous physical toll stations collecting fees at each newly renovated toll station in the capital.

When the toll stations complete reconstruction, vehicles won’t need to stop and can instead quickly pass through the portal.

Demolition work on the toll station involves two steps. The first will remove the previous ETC portals and then the second will connect the new ones together.

Located in Daxing district, Beijing, the demolished toll station has 25 toll lanes, including seven ETC vehicle lanes and 18 for manual toll collection. Nearly 15,000 cars pass through each day. During peak hours, about 1,500 vehicles will go through the station.

A total of 348 ETC portals as well as 1,038 transforming lanes will be built in Beijing, according to the municipal transport commission. The ETC construction work will finish before the end of December.

The removal of physical highway toll stations will not cancel the fees charged to vehicles, but will speed up traffic by allowing vehicles to pass through nonstop. The project aims to ease congestion and reduce vehicle exhaust emissions, as well as lower the highway’s logistics costs.