SOUTH BEND — The federal government will chip in to help build a new operations center for the city’s public bus service.

Transpo will get $3.7 million in federal stimulus money for the 160,000-square-foot operations center it plans to build on Lafayette Boulevard near Sample Street.

The project is out to bid right now, but Transpo general manager Rick Brown estimated the total cost to be about $17 million.

Transpo officials had asked for slightly more in their grant application, but $3.7 million was close enough to match the bus line’s needs.

"We never know how much we’re going to get through the federal government," he said. "We apply for what we need and we get what they give us. That’s just the way it works."

The new operations center is designed to replace the 125-year-old Northside Boulevard building where Transpo currently operates.

When Transpo’s fleet of about 58 vehicles isn’t operating during the overnight hours, the buses are parked indoors at the Northside facility.

"It’s bumper-to-bumper," he said. "The building was not built for vehicles the size of our vehicles."

The new place is getting its federal money from an $8.4 billion pool of money in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, otherwise known as the federal stimulus package signed into law in February.

In that law, emphasis was placed on funding environmentally sustainable projects. Transpo’s new operations center will be LEED certified, Brown said.

LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a rigorous set of standards to ensure buildings are environmentally responsible in a variety of ways — including energy consumption, water usage and materials used in construction.

Staff writer Ed Ronco:
eronco@sbtinfo.com
(574) 235-6353