Skip to main content

American Center for Mobility plans connected vehicle test centre in Michigan

WSP/Parsons Brinckerhoff has been awarded a contract by the American Center for Mobility (ACM) to develop a concept of operations, system requirements, and a procurement strategy for the technology elements of a major new connected and automated vehicle test site facility. The ACM will be built on more than 335 acres adjacent to Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, where B-24 bombers were made during World War II in a factory built by Henry Ford. It aims to become a national advanced automotive testing and p
December 20, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
8556 WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff has been awarded a contract by the American Center for Mobility (ACM) to develop a concept of operations, system requirements, and a procurement strategy for the technology elements of a major new connected and automated vehicle test site facility.

The ACM will be built on more than 335 acres adjacent to Willow Run Airport in Ypsilanti, where B-24 bombers were made during World War II in a factory built by Henry Ford. It aims to become a national advanced automotive testing and product development centre that can accommodate the broad needs of industry and government, test various weather conditions including ice and snow and provide room to grow and adapt as technology dictates. The centre will carry out precautionary testing before vehicles are deployed on the road and provide a proving ground for collaborative safety technology demonstrations. The ACM will also serve as a convening centre to accelerate the development of voluntary standards.

The concept of operations will define requirements for the test facility, including connected vehicle infrastructure, traditional intelligent transportation systems (ITS) technologies, data collection, monitoring and test simulation needs associated with the site.

As the prime consultant, WSP/Parsons Brinckerhoff will coordinate with staff and contractors to develop a complete baseline understanding of the project, identify all user needs, establish a proposed phasing for the site development and coordinate all third party agreements which could impact the design concept. The firm will conduct stakeholder outreach meetings in Southeast Michigan with key stakeholders and customers in order to identify system needs.

Related Content

  • November 3, 2021
    Ouster Lidar aids German V2X plans 
    Researchers built 60 mobile measuring stations to be deployed across a 4.3km stretch
  • March 6, 2018
    Nairobi looks to ITS to ease travel problems
    Shem Oirere looks at plans to tackle chronic congestion in the Kenyan capital - where commuters can typically expect it to take up to two hours to complete a 15km journey. Traffic jams in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, are estimated to cost the country $360 million a year in terms of lost man-hours, fuel and pollution. According to Wilfred Oginga, an engineer with the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA), the congestion has been exacerbated by poor regulation and enforcement of traffic rules, absence of
  • August 7, 2018
    Motown morphs into Mobility City
    Detroit was once a byword for urban decay – but ITS America recently held its annual meeting there. This gave David Arminas a chance to assess how fast Motor City is moving down the road to recovery. Motor City, as Detroit is still called, was on its financial knees only five short years ago. The future looked bleak as the city and greater urban area bled jobs and population. It was on 18 July 2013 that Motown, as Detroit is also known, filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, the
  • March 6, 2018
    Nairobi looks to ITS to ease travel problems
    Shem Oirere looks at plans to tackle chronic congestion in the Kenyan capital - where commuters can typically expect it to take up to two hours to complete a 15km journey. Traffic jams in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, are estimated to cost the country $360 million a year in terms of lost man-hours, fuel and pollution. According to Wilfred Oginga, an engineer with the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA), the congestion has been exacerbated by poor regulation and enforcement of traffic rules, absence of