L-1 doubles contract value for passport program

The company initially estimated the value at $107 million over five years. The upward revision to $215 million during that period results from an expected increase in demand from Americans in border communities.

L-1 also said it was awarded an additional $24.8 million over five years for a new border-crossing card program for Mexican visa applicants.

The passport card, which is part of the State Department's Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, will be valid only for land and sea travel between the U.S. and Canada, the Caribbean, Bermuda and Mexico.

L-1 said the cards are intended to be a less expensive and more portable alternative to the traditional passport book. L-1 promises faster border crossing times and less traffic congestion at land border crossings.

The passport card will contain a vicinity-read radio frequency identification chip, which will link the card to a stored record in secure government databases. L-1 said the RFID chip itself will carry a unique ID number rather than any personal information.

L-1 said more than 350,000 Americans pre-ordered the passport card, distribution for which began this month. The separate border-crossing card program will begin this fall.

L-1 was formed in 2006 through Viisage Technology Inc.'s acquisition of rival Identix Inc. Both companies were involved with facial-recognition and other identification technologies.