In June 2014 a new contract was entered between SP+ and The City of New Orleans. At the outset it was incumbent on SP+ to replace all existing on-street single space and multi-space meters. During contract negotiations SP+ and the city that Digital Luke II multi-space pay stations and IPS single-space meters would be the hardware of choice. Both products were solar powered, accepted credit cards and were auditable, using the back-office software. During the initial transition process, SP+ worked closely with a select vendor to replace the existing Parkeon units with Luke IIs. Due to the intuitive operation of the Luke IIs and similarity in function to the prior units, public outreach was not necessary during this transition. Over the course of 6 months SP+ and its contractor replaced 412 Parkeon units with Luke II pay stations.
Beyond the initial pay station replacement project, the SP+ transition team recognized that many parking zones within the city would be better served by pay stations, rather than the existing single space meters. After several comprehensive surveys, roughly 100 sites were identified for this transition. SP+ personnel then went to work removing the single space meters and poles, marking each area for signage and pay station installation. Working in concert with a local sign vendor, the team installed all associated signage and pay stations. This project phase ran from March-June 2015.
Lastly, the replacement of Duncan single-space meters with IPS ran from July-September 2015. SP+ performed a comprehensive survey to identify any infrastructure needs prior to meter mechanism replacement. This included replacing any short or bent meter poles as well as unifying meter housing types within regions of the city to ensure a pleasant aesthetic. The next phase consisted of removing old meter mechanisms, cleaning the housing interior and installing RFID tags, which give each meter its identity. The final step was the mechanism install and syncing with RFID.
Both the Luke II and IPS meters have served the City of New Orleans well during their tenure and along with preventive maintenance and repairs performed by our local team, have consistently enjoyed a > 98% uptime since install.
SP+ does not do parking enforcement in New Orleans as the city has chosen to keep that function in-house.
