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New transit center will help Raleigh expand bus service
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This artist's rendering shows what the new trasnit center
will look like when completed in 2011.
(Image courtesy of City of Raleigh.)
The transit operations center Raleigh will officially being building today is crucial to expanding bus services and keeping up with demand for mass transit, according to David Eatman, the city’s Transit Administrator.
“Obviously, we are a growing area,” Eatman said. “We think the public is embracing mass transit much more than they ever have before. In the last two years, we’ve seen double digit increases annually in bus ridership.”
The new transit center, to be located south of Poole Road just east of the Beltline, replaces a 30-year old facility that is inadequate to handle an expanding fleet – currently 90 vehicles and growing at a rate of 3 to 4 per year, Eatman said. The facility is only built to handle 50 vehicles however the new one will be able to handle 125, with ability to expand to 200.
Eatman pointed to the express bus service than began Monday between Wendell and Zebulon and downtown Raleigh as examples of the type of expansion the new facility will allow.
The center will consist of a 27,400-square-foot, two-story operations administration building, a single-story maintenance facility of 56,000 square feet, a 7,500-square-foot bus wash building, and a two-lane fueling depot building. A bus shelter on Poole Road for riders of Capital Area Transit also will be part of the project.
Brasfield & Gorrie won the $21 million construction bid, and the company has pledged to subcontract 21.1 percent of the work to Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises. The center will cost $22.5 million including architect fees and other costs, Eatman said. It is scheduled to be completed in spring of 2011, officials said.
Mayor Charles Meeker will preside over the noon groundbreaking ceremony, and state and federal officials will attend.
Eatman noted that the project is being funded primarily by $11.6 million from the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act, also know as the federal stimulus package.
“This will hopefully do what those funds are intended for,” he said. “This money is going to stay right here in the community and put people to work locally.”
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