Skip to main content

FDOT partners with Florida Poly to develop transportation test facility

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and Florida Polytechnic University are to partner in a new transportation technology testing facility, SunTrax, to create a high-tech hub for the research, development and testing of emerging transportation technologies related to tolling, intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and automated and connected vehicles. The initial phase of the project will focus on the construction of a toll testing facility expected to offer local and potentially national a
September 29, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
The 4503 Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and 8507 Florida Polytechnic University are to partner in a new transportation technology testing facility, SunTrax, to create a high-tech hub for the research, development and testing of emerging transportation technologies  related to tolling, intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and automated and connected vehicles.

The initial phase of the project will focus on the construction of a toll testing facility expected to offer local and potentially national and international certification for tolling technologies. The construction of the 2.25 mile oval track will be designed to support high speed testing of toll technologies, with multiple lanes and parallel tolled express lanes similar to those being constructed on many current highway widening projects throughout the state.

This phase of construction will also include structures and other facilities to support toll systems testing and development, including the hardware and software utilised on tolled facilities.

Around 200 acres infield of the track will be developed next in partnership with Florida Poly and is expected to become a hub for automated and connected vehicle testing, allowing the University to offer its students unique opportunities to participate in the research, development and testing of these technologies.

The facility will also include learning laboratory, a simulated city centre, suburban and rural roadways, interconnected signalised intersections, interchange ramps, roundabouts and various types of pavement, equipped to perform research, development and testing for data and security, vehicle safety and equipment certification.

Related Content

  • July 24, 2017
    Truck platooning trials take to the highways
    There is rising enthusiasm in America and beyond for the concept of truck platooning with trials being planned in several US states, as David Crawford reports. Growing numbers of US states are considering or implementing plans for trials of electronically-linked truck platooning on public road networks. This is in response to the interest being shown by the US$70bn a year road freight industry, where fuel represents 41% of the operating costs making the prospect of improving fuel economy by trucks travellin
  • July 26, 2013
    Qatar invests $70 billion to pave the way to world beating transportation
    Eng. Zeina Nazer looks at what Qatar’s recently-announced investment in transport infrastructure will mean on the ground. Qatar is experiencing a rapid economic and industrial growth. This growth is characterised by a rapid population increase and by the urgent need towards the development of both infrastructure projects and major transport projects. In order to handle this rate of development within Qatar, Public Works Authority (Ashghal) is developing a fully-integrated multimodal transportation system in
  • April 18, 2012
    Activu wins FDOT approval for flagship software platform
    Activu Corporation, a leading provider of IP-based visualisation and collaboration solutions for mission-critical command and control centre environments, has been qualified as an approved vendor by Florida’s Department of Transportation (FDOT) following independent testing and validation by FDOT’s Traffic Engineering Research Laboratory (TERL) in Tallahassee. The IP-based visualisation software has been approved as fully compatible with FDOT’s SunGuide software for ITS, meaning that Activu’s video wall sol
  • October 28, 2024
    IntelliRoad gets Florida wrong-way approval
    Detection system designed to prevent catastrophic collisions is on DoT approved list