Area Transportation Lab

There's a place in Champaign County where local government, State government and our area University, renowned for engineering, are collaborating in ways that may affect local government transportation options everywhere: The Advanced Transportation Research and Engineering Laboratory. From the Wednesday News-Gazette:

UI's transportation lab in Rantoul could soon get test track, 'smart city'
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Self-healing roads are just one of the innovative areas where the Illinois Center for Transportation is in the vanguard. And it's all happening in Rantoul.

The center is located at the Advanced Transportation Research and Engineering Laboratory, tucked away in the northeast corner of the former Chanute Air Force Base. Researchers from the University of Illinois and other universities in Illinois and nationwide, as well as the Illinois Department of Transportation, study transportation-related issues there.

And while it is already the place to be for transportation-related research in this area, it might get a lot busier.

The center, which sits on 47 acres of the former base ("Most people don't know we're out here," said Kristi Anderson, financial operations manager) could grow exponentially in size. A proposed project — housing a 1.9-mile test track where vehicles could reach speeds of up to 65 mph — would add 257 acres to the site.

"In the middle of the (site) will be a smart city with different opportunities to test different types of transportation," she said...

The UI's lab spans 67,000 square feet of laboratories with three main buildings. The center's accelerated transportation loading system enables researchers to evaluate different transportation systems "under real environmental and loading systems, whether it be trucks, aircraft or rail systems," Anderson said.

Its mission includes implementation of technologies that improve safety and reliability, reduce congestion and impact on the environment.

IDOT is one of the center's largest sponsors. Since 2005, it has contributed $77.2 million worth of funding for the facility.

The new smart transportation initiative, under the UI College of Engineering, will focus all transportation research under one umbrella, pulling together academia, government and industry, Anderson said. Its mission will be to accelerate development and deployment of automated transportation with a focus on freight and autonomous vehicles. The UI, Northwestern and University of Illinois-Chicago are assisting with the project.

More at the full article here.