The Electronics Research Center (ERC), was a NASA research facility located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, across the street from MIT at Kendall Square. The ERC opened in September 1964, taking over the administration of contracts, grants, and other NASA business in New England from the antecedent North Eastern Operations Office (created in July 1962), and closed in June 1970. The campus is now the site of the United States Department of Transportation's John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center. Aberthaw was low bidder among five contestants and with the awarding of the second phase Aberthaw became the general contractor for the entire project which at that time represented the largest competitive bid in its history. The Center was located in Cambridge after Massachusetts politicians unsuccessfully lobbied for the Manned Spacecraft Center.[1] The center started its operations in Technology Square on Main Street while its campus was being built on Broadway. The location of the ERC allowed it to take advantage of the proximity to MIT and (to a lesser extent) Harvard University, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories, and the electronics industry located along Route 128. At the time, the technical, industrial, and commercial aspects of microelectronics were ascendant, especially in the Boston-Cambridge technopolis.