Transportation researchers packing for new NTRC Transportation researchers packing for new NTRC T he paint is dry and the carpet is down at the new National Transportation Research Center, which will be home to a number of ORNL transportation research projects and groups. The NTRC is nearly 85,000 square feet of a researcher s paradise that includes high-bay areas, numerous labs and about 150 offices that will house ORNL and University of Tennessee researchers involved in aspects of transportation from policymaking to packaging. NTRC Director Bob Honea, who has nursed the center through its conceptual and construction phases, says the new center is the culmination of an idea that arose a scant seven years ago.
Amazing ideas come up when the right group of people get together.
A lot of other people told me it would never get done. The NTRC has been built with private developer funding. ORNL and UT are leasing this space, Bob says. There are no federal funds involved. We plowed new ground on everything, he says.