College Campus to House $14M Indoor Crash Test Center

ASHBURN, VA-A new 80,000-sf indoor crash test facility will adorn the local campus of George Washington University, now that the educational institution–with agencies of the US Department of Transportation at its side–has broken ground on the new highway safety research center. The Department of Transportation’s National Transportation Safety Board signed a 20-year lease two years ago with the university, which is paying to develop the $14 million structure.

This project does not represent the first time that George Washington University and the DOT have teamed up on a project. Ten years ago, the federal agency established the National Crash Analysis Center at the university’s Transportation Research Institute. “The National Crash Analysis Center is a primary example of GW’s commitment to working with government agencies, private industry and other academic institutions in the national interest,” university president Stephen Joel Trachtenberg says. “The new Transportation Research Institute building–the future home of the NCAC and our fourth building on the GW Virginia Campus–will play a large role in helping make our daily travels and our daily lives safer.” The facility is expected to be up and running in 2005.