With the receipt of a $2.8 million grant, NAIPTA has secured all of the necessary funding for a facility expansion project that will accommodate future growth as ridership and demand for transit services in Flagstaff increases.
The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) announced this week that NAIPTA successfully applied for and received $2,825,453 in Federal Transit Administration (FTA) grant funds. Coupled with more than $3.7 million in grant funding already acquired, NAIPTA will cover nearly 80 percent of the total project expansion costs with federal grants. The remaining funds will come from the local match required to apply for any federal grant funding.
NAIPTA broke ground on the facility expansion on April 1, with plans calling for the development of four acres adjacent to the existing NAIPTA headquarters. Scheduled to open in November, the expansion will feature a new 25,000-square-foot bus storage facility and an automated bus wash. The majority of NAIPTA’s fleet is currently stored outdoors and exposed to the elements. The new facility will house up to vehicles and provide adequate training space for transit bus operators, as well as create the necessary indoor space for operators to conduct pre- and post-trip vehicle inspections. The drive-through bus wash will also create increased efficiency, allowing vehicles to pass through in less than one minute.
“NAIPTA has been aggressively pursuing the necessary grant funding to complete our expansion for more than two years, and this final addition is exactly what we need to ensure a quality project with the limited use of local funds,” said NAIPTA CEO and General Manager Jeff Meilbeck. “The FTA has made a significant investment in Flagstaff transit through the funding of several vehicles, and the addition of this bus storage facility means that we are putting an equal investment in protecting the life of those buses.”
The overall project cost is nearly $8.3 million with more than $6.5 million being financed with federal assistance provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation, FTA, and ADOT; in partnership with the city of Flagstaff.
