Congestion pricing, or congestion relief, is a project 20 years in the making in New York. And, on January 5, the network will finally go into effect. Passenger vehicles will be charged $9 to enter Manhattan below 60th Street, whether they arrive from New Jersey, Connecticut, or Long Island. What equipment is necessary to make such a sophisticated system function? Dattner Architects worked under Parsons, the engineering lead on the project to design the boxes that register vehicle numbers and automatically charge motorists, sending money back to the MTA for much needed capital. Stantec and Doppelmayr were also on the project team.Parsons designed the equipment to make the system run smoothly, and Dattner Architects ideated the houses that shield the tech from the elements. Dattners work also entailed the evaluation of site-specific contexts for over 100 locations, helping determine where the boxes should go.The sensors were designed to be easily installed on traffic posts. (Courtesy Dattner Architects)According to a study performed by the MTA each weekday more than 900,000 people in vehicles enter the Manhattan CentralBusiness District (CBD). After January 5, small trucks will be charged $24, and large trucks $36 if they so choose to come into Manhattan. Taxi cabs will be tolled $1.25 per ride, and Uber $2.50. Motorcyclists, meanwhile, will have to shell out $7.50. At night, passenger vehicles will have to pay just $2.25. This fee goes for all of Manhattans eight thoroughfares south of Central Park: Lincoln Tunnel, Queensboro Bridge, Queens-Midtown Tunnel, Williamsburg Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, Hugh Carey Tunnel, and the Holland Tunnel.The prototype designed by Dattner Architects was reproduced more than 100 times and installed in site-specific locales south of 60th Street. This design can be easily installed on your run-of-the-mill traffic post. There will be one sensor per traffic lane.Dattner Architects led the architectural design and visual quality management component of the project as part of the TransCore Design-Build-Operate-Maintain program.