Bentley was the Architect and Engineer of Record for several new buildings that are a part of the SunTrax Test Facility. SunTrax is a large-scale, cutting-edge facility dedicated to the research, development, and testing of emerging transportation technologies in safe and controlled environments. Phase 1 buildings included Administrative and Warehouse facilities, site work, and toll equipment buildings.

The SunTrax Test Facility is designed to create a high-tech hub for the research, development, and testing of emerging transportation technologies related to tolling, intelligent transportation systems, and automated and connected vehicles. SunTrax includes a 2.25-mile oval track on a 400-acre site in Polk County designed to support high-speed testing of toll technologies with multiple lanes and parallel tolled express lanes similar to those being constructed on many current highway widening projects throughout the state.

In response to the success of Bentley’s involvement in the first phase as part of the design team responsible for development of the 200-acre infield of the track, which was designated to become a hub for automated and connected vehicle testing. Bentley’s scope for this phase included programming and design of additional administrative, lab, and operations space. In a continued partnership with Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise and Florida Polytechnic University, Bentley served as the Architect and Engineer of Record for the SunTrax Test Facility-Phase 2 maintenance building, central utilities plant, workshops A & B, eight vehicle support structures, and guardhouse. Completed in the spring of 2022, SunTrax’s 200-acre infield features various segmented testing environments to aid in the study of tolling technology, intelligent transportation systems, and autonomous vehicles.