The San Luis Obispo Regional Transit Authority (RTA) broke ground on its new operations and maintenance facility, which was planned and designed by Stantec.
The new facility will play a vital role in San Luis Obispo RTA’s ability to deliver safe, reliable transit services for San Luis Obispo County.
In support of the agency’s wide coverage area, the facility was programmed to operate, service and maintain San Luis Obispo RTA’s entire fleet and serve as the headquarters for the agency. The facility will house the approximately 65 transit vehicles that will dispatch out of this location. The remainder of the future 112 vehicle fleet will dispatch from the agency’s several small park-out facilities across the county.
The 27,500-square-foot operations and maintenance facility will include parking for up to 67 public transit vehicles, as well as 84 visitor and employee vehicles, and will include five repair bays, parts storage and locker rooms. The facility—designed with efficiency in mind—reflects the agency’s close-knit, family atmosphere, and will feature a large shared breakroom that opens out to an employee patio.
The agency’s facility is designed to meet the requirements of California’s Green Building Code (CalGreen). The sustainable building design eliminates the operational use of fossil fuels on-site, maximizes the potential for photovoltaic power generation on the building roof and over vehicle parking, utilizes ultra-local building materials and has been designed to accommodate a future all-electric vehicle fleet to be implemented by 2040, says Stantec.
“It’s exciting to see the San Luis Obispo RTA bus operations and maintenance facility reach this critical milestone,” said Will Todd, Stantec project manager. “This is a project that will truly belong to the people who use it. We worked closely with San Luis Obispo RTA to design a sustainable, high-performance facility designed to meet the comfort of the agency’s workforce, with ample room for future growth.”
“We are pleased to be breaking ground on this exciting project for the RTA. This new facility is an important part of the infrastructure in our county and for all of the people who use and work with RTA and Runabout transit services,” said Geoff Straw, San Luis Obispo RTA executive director. “We are grateful to our many partners— including Stantec; general contractor, Specialty Construction; and construction manager consultant, Kitchell CM— who have helped us reach this milestone, and we look forward to working with them until this project reaches completion.”
Stantec provided architecture, civil engineering, survey, landscape architecture, mechanical and plumbing engineering, industrial architecture, telecom design and fire protection engineering on the project. The San Luis Obispo RTA bus operations and maintenance facility is scheduled to be complete in late 2021.
