USDOT officials break ground on new Volpe Center research facility

Rail News Home Rail Industry Trends 11/5/2019 Rail News: Rail Industry Trends
USDOT, U.S. General Services Administration, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Volpe Center officials broke ground on a new facility.Photo – USDOT

U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) officials last week kicked off construction of the new Volpe Center, a 400,000-square-foot federal research facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The project calls for reducing the current Volpe Center from 14 acres to 4 acres, and from six buildings to one building, in order to reduce operating costs and unlock land for development by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USDOT officials said in a press release.

The new center is being built as a public-private partnership between USDOT, U.S. General Services Administration and MIT.

USDOT established the Volpe Center in 1970 as a federal resource to provide multidisciplinary, multimodal transportation expertise to its administrations and external organizations. Center officials have worked to reduce grade crossing accidents, improve vehicle safety and better manage airspace, USDOT officials said.