Bus transportation is making significant inroads in the city of Ann Arbor these days with the impending $4.2 million reconstruction of the the
Blake Transit Center downtown.
The existing 2,000-square-foot facility at 331 S. Fourth Avenue will be replaced with a 6,000-square-foot terminal, and the storage facility at 2700 S. Industrial Highway will be expanded by 20,000 square feet.
Driving this project are infrastructure problems at the current property such as deteriorating concrete and outdated HVAC systems, as well as a huge increase in ridership over the years, says Mary Stasiak, community relations manager for AATA.
When the Blake Transit Center opened 23 years ago, about 3.7 million bus rides were taken. That figure is now up to about six million, with 5,000 passengers a day passing through the center.
"In the last five years we've seen a 40% increase in ridership, and we don't see that subsiding with the increase in gas prices and the increase in people interested in using transit," Stasiak notes.
The project is funded by a $1,608,000 Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) grant with a $403,000 state match; a $1,013,000 State of Good Repair/FTA grant with a $253,250 state match; and a $735,000 FTA Discretionary Transit grant and state match of $183,750, according to AATA.
Spence Brothers has been selected as the contractor. A start date has not yet been finalized.
AATA is also seeking estimates to make the terminal LEED-certified. Additional funding source(s) for LEED features have not been identified as of yet, although, Stasiak says, it is possible those features could fit within the existing $4.2 million budget
Source: Mary Stasiak, community relations manager for AATAWriter: Tanya Muzumdar
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