The system financed by the scheme includes a ring road around the city on
European route E6, a new motorway east of the city to
Stjørdal Municipality and
Trondheim Airport, Værnes on E6, upgrades to E6 south of the city, including a new intersection at Sandmoen, a new
Kroppan Bridge and a four-lane motorway between Klett and
Melhus. a road from
Ila via
Brattøra to
Lademoen, named
Nordre Avlastningsvei, was under construction with plans to be finished in 2009 while an extension of E6 between the airport and to Kvithamar north of Stjørdal was in the start phase. Projects still not started at that time included putting Osloveien in
Byåsen in a tunnel, a new
Sluppen Bridge and a four-lane motorway between Tonstad to Klett. There was also a political consensus that some of the money generated by the system should be used to improve
public transport in the city. Some environmental projects in the area also benefited from the toll income. The toll collection was administrated by
Trøndelag Veifinans. More than twenty
toll booths were built, closing off all approaches to the city. It was impossible for anybody driving a car to get in for free
weekdays between 6 am and 5 pm. The charge was
NOK 15 for cars and 30 for trucks. The systems were designed to be user friendly through
AutoPASS technology developed by the local company
Q-Free, involving a radio-transmitted registration of passing cars, allowing cars to pass the toll booths at 60 km/h (but at most toll booths the speed limit was 50 km/h). The driver fits a small, plastic
RFID device to the
windscreen of the car, which communicates with the toll booth when the car passes through, and deducts money from the user's
account. Those who (intentionally or by negligence) passed a toll booth without an operating toll device (or paying manually where possible) were subject to a fine. Motorists using a toll device were eligible for a toll
discount. The toll ring was not juridically considered a
road pricing scheme, since the income from the tolls goes to road infrastructure. To be considered a road pricing scheme in accordance to
Norwegian law, the scheme must be organised such as to charge most when the
congestion is largest, i.e. in
rush hour. Secondly, a road pricing scheme cannot primarily finance road investments, but must go either to public transport
subsidies or to infrastructure for public transport and
pedestrians and
bicycles. The system was initially introduced to fund the building of new ring roads so that the heaviest traffic would not have to pass through the city centre. Part of the reason for this traffic is due to
Trondheim Port being located on an artificial island only accessible via the
city centre and Trondheim has yet to move its
port out of the city centre, like the
London Docklands and
Fjordbyen in Oslo. There are ongoing discussions on whether the port should be moved from its current location. The lack of a bypass outside the residential areas, along with less than optimal
railroad capacity, contributes heavily to road congestion through
Trondheim Municipality. ==Criticism==