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.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Intersection management, cooperative infrastructures - what next?
    February 1, 2012
    What do recent vehicle recalls mean for future cooperative infrastructures? Anthony Smith takes a look. As ITS industry stakeholders converge on Amsterdam for the 2010 Cooperative Mobility Showcase, an unprecedentedly wide range of technologies will be on display demonstrating what might be achievable in the future from innovations based on Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications.
  • TEXpress adds reversible managed lanes
    April 19, 2017
    Land availability restrictions and tidal traffic flows have led to the implementation of a novel managed lane configuration in Texas, as Colin Sowman finds out. Dealing with traffic congestion related to the ‘tidal flows’ caused by large numbers of commuters making their way into major business hubs in the morning and returning to the suburbs in the evening, has seen the widespread use of adaptive signal timing and even reversible lanes.
  • Heading the right way with Caltrans
    October 27, 2020
    Wrong-way collisions are relatively rare – but they are often head-on and fatal. After recent studies, California DoT is reviewing its highway design standards
  • Solving Detroit’s jams: just ask a Michigan student
    October 17, 2019
    At the Institute of Transportation Engineers annual meeting, a clever student plan to reduce commute times in Detroit suggests the future of the ITS industry is in good hands, write Pete Spiller and Jarrod Cady A team of students from the University of Michigan won a national student Transportation Technology Tournament - sponsored by the National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE) and the US Department of Transportation - with a compelling presentation on reducing congestion. In an impressive d