A $20 million facility for testing and research of self-driving vehicles will be built in Westmoreland County, state officials announced Thursday.
The project unveiled by PennDOT Secretary Yassmin Gramian will be built on about 100 acres of state-owned land at the Regional Industrial Development Corp. in East Huntingdon. Officials said it will feature a 3-mile test track and other facilities available for lease to private companies that build and test self-driving vehicles.
The facility, named Pennsylvania Safety, Transportation and Research Track — or PennStart — also will serve as a training center for emergency responders.
“PennStart will provide opportunity for the public sector, private sector, academic sector to collaborate and create economic opportunities and advance equitable opportunity to transportation and of course improve safety,” Gramian said.
Once complete in late 2024 or early 2025, the facility will be the first of its kind in Pennsylvania, according to Mark Kopko, PennDOT’s director of transformational technology.
Companies in the self-driving vehicle industry will “be able to replicate high-speed, high-traffic situations (at the site) and that’s something you can’t do in a parking lot. This is a jack-of-all-trades facility,” Kopko said.
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A report issued last fall by the RIDC and the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce found the autonomous vehicle industry creates more than 6,300 jobs and another 8,600 in indirect positions in the region, generating $651 million in labor income and nearly $35 million in state and local tax revenue.
Gramian said the Westmoreland location was selected after officials were unable to finalize a deal with Penn State University for land in central Pennsylvania.
“The state has committed to operating it for 20 years. This will be an asset for many years,” RIDC President Don Smith said.
The facility will occupy a site that has long been a centerpiece of Westmoreland County industry. Built in the 1960s, the property once was home to a manufacturing plant for Chrysler. A decade later it was taken over by Volkswagen, which at its peak produced more than 200,000 cars there. The plant closed in 1988 and was retrofitted for its third incarnation in the 1990s to serve as a local production hub for Sony Electronics.
Sony closed the plant in 2010. Over the past decade, county and state officials converted the site for multi-purpose use, which is now home to the Westmoreland County Community College Advanced Technology Center and private companies including Pittsburgh-based Argo AI, which specializes in autonomous vehicle technology. Officials say about 1,200 workers are employed at the 2,800-square-foot complex.
“Transportation continues to be the very heartbeat of this site since Day 1,” said county Commissioner Sean Kertes. “We are looking forward to tomorrow when we will be looking forward to working with PennDOT and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission on researching and improving our transportation systems to ensure our residents and loved ones are safe.
“We couldn’t be happier to have everybody here in Westmoreland County, as this is going to be a major player, a major juggernaut for our county.”
Jason Rigone, the county’s planning director and executive director of the Westmoreland County Industrial Development Corp., predicted the project could attract autonomous vehicle-related companies to the area.
“We see an opportunity for these companies to open up an operation here, or in this region. It’s a tremendous economic opportunity,” Rigone said.
