CALIFORNIA - After nine years of planning, and nearly three years of design and construction, Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus is ready to turn the key on its new state-of-the-art, environmentally significant maintenance facility. The project came in under budget and on time, and features the latest in sustainable transit maintenance technologies.

A dedication ceremony and public open house will be held on September 23 from 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. The special event will feature a ribbon cutting by city officials, self-guided tours of the facility, a large display of vintage photos covering the past 80 years of the Big Blue Bus, a 3-D video presentation showcasing how the project was designed and a variety of equipment demonstrations.

The new facility, which was financed entirely by public transit funds, is part of an expansion project that will also include the demolition of the existing 40-year-old maintenance facility and a reorganized, more efficient bus yard. The project was extensively planned and multi-phased so that daily bus operations could be maintained while the project was under construction. The total cost of this phase, including the demolition and new parking area, will be $60 million.

"This project has exceeded our expectations, both in its environmental and functional design and in its overall execution," said Santa Monica City Manager P. Lamont Ewell.

"This new facility and its increased capacity yard will allow the Big Blue Bus to smoothly transition into the future so we can better serve the community for many years to come," he added.

"While the old facility has served us well for over 40 years, we live in a different world now and need a facility that can maintain our larger and more technologically diverse fleet, which includes many different types and sizes of cleaner burning alternative fueled vehicles," said Stephanie Negriff, director of transit services for the Big Blue Bus.