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John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center

Coordinates: 42°21′50.67″N 71°5′8.16″W / 42.3640750°N 71.0856000°W / 42.3640750; -71.0856000
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Volpe Center
A picture of glass skyscraper with a white facade that is 10-15 stories tall, taken from another nearby tower.
The future Volpe Center in summer 2023 before its opening.

The John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (colloquially, the Volpe Center) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a center of transportation and logistics expertise in the Research and Innovative Technology Administration of the United States Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT).

The center's work includes projects that cut across traditional transportation modes and technical disciplines, including the Federal Aviation Administration's Enhanced Traffic Management System (ETMS) and Safety Performance Analysis System (SPAS), and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's SafeStat Online.

The Center helps federal, state, and local governments, industry, and academia in various areas, including human factors research, system design, implementation and assessment, global tracking, strategic investment and resource allocation, environmental preservation, and organizational effectiveness.

Volpe differs from most federal organizations in that it receives no direct appropriation from Congress. Instead, its roughly $200 million annual budget is funded by fees for its work.

The center is named for John Volpe, a former Massachusetts governor and U.S. Secretary of Transportation.

Location

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Volpe is located on the campus of NASA's former Electronics Research Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, across the Charles River from Boston, across the street from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and next to the Kendall/MIT MBTA Red Line subway stop.

Redevelopment

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In January 2017, MIT signed an agreement with the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to redevelop the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, with the state aim of turning the 14-acre parcel into a more vibrant mixed-use site.[1]

In October 2017, the Cambridge City Council approved MIT’s rezoning petition for the site and a team of architects and landscape planners have been working to imagine a new home for the Volpe Center.[2]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Matheson, Rob (January 18, 2017). "MIT signs agreement to redevelop Volpe Center". MIT. MIT News Office. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  2. ^ "First step on Volpe parcel planned for 2019". MIT. MIT News Office. February 5, 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
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42°21′50.67″N 71°5′8.16″W / 42.3640750°N 71.0856000°W / 42.3640750; -71.0856000

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