After years of toll-road problems, audits and payouts, SANDAG outsources its toll collections

San Diego’s regional planning agency is largely walking away — for now — from its controversial management of local toll roads, after years of billing-software problems that led to scathing audits and millions in legal costs.

The San Diego Association of Governments is set to ink a contract with two Orange County transit agencies that will hand them control of the billing and financial systems for the tolled section of state Route 125 in the South Bay and toll lanes on Interstate 15 in North County.

The move could save the agency more than $2 million a year, its staff said.

On Friday, SANDAG’s board unanimously backed the new contract with the Transportation Corridor Agencies, or TCA, which consists of two different agencies that oversee four Orange County toll roads, as well as handle the billing system for tolled lanes on Interstate 10 in San Bernardino County.

SANDAG will continue to staff toll booths and provide customer service.

Problems with the tolling software on state Route 125 have dogged SANDAG for years, and exposed deeper problems in the agency’s contracting practices.

In recent months, the agency was order...