The Ohio General Assembly this week approved a $25 million investment in House Bill 2 to help make improvements at the Transportation Research Center Inc., including renovation of its 25,000-square-foot Impact Laboratory.
Research conducted at this facility has played a major role in advancing highway safety and saving lives over its 50-year history, TRC President and CEO Brett Roubinek noted in a press release.
“We are proud that Ohio has become the go-to place for the world’s leading automotive innovators, and we are grateful that our state’s legislative leaders and the DeWine-Husted Administration have allocated $25 million to help us make key investments in our facility, including upgrading our Impact Laboratory so that we can remain a leader in crash testing and impact simulation,” Roubinek said.
“As North America’s most comprehensive automotive proving ground, our advanced facilities and world-class expertise of our people continue to place us as THE premier location for mobility research. This investment will help us keep pace with the game-changing technologies we are seeing in our industry and better meet the needs of today’s job-creating mobility companies.”
Since opening its proving grounds 50 years ago, TRC has attracted about 1,000 clients from world-leading industries and partnered with decision makers in every sector – government, industry, research, education – to drive innovation in automotive safety and performance.
TRC’s 4,500-acre East Liberty campus in Union and Logan counties, with an expert team of 500 engineers and other specialists, operates around the clock to conduct tests in a variety of advanced research facilities.
In addition to the 25,000-square-foot Impact Laboratory, key research facilities include closed-road courses, rural lanes, a 7.5-mile high-speed oval test track, and a 50-acre vehicle dynamics area. Among TRC accomplishments have been its key roles in the development of automotive innovations such as airbags, anti-lock brakes, lane assist, adaptive cruise control – were all tested and refined here at TRC before they appeared on American roadways.
Most recently, TRC has developed pioneering testing facilities for the development of autonomous driving technologies.
