A long-awaited and much-anticipated massive new bus storage and maintenance facility is beginning to take shape along Northfield Drive in the north end of Waterloo, Ont.
This is no ordinary bus build, though. Upon completion, the $104-million structure will be a whopping 305,000 square feet, enough space to comfortably store 200 buses and also have numerous maintenance bays. Shovels went into the ground at the beginning of March and the build is expected to take about two years.
“Construction is currently underway with concrete footings and grade beams being completed,” says Kimberly Lane, senior project manager for the venture, which is known officially as the Grand River Transit (GRT) Northfield Drive Bus Storage and Maintenance Facility project.
In June, crews will begin working on underground services.
IBI Group is the consultant and Magil Construction of London, Ont., is the contractor. Magil, which built the north headquarters for the Region of Waterloo Paramedic Services, was awarded the contract in February.
The project is funded under the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program, which is designed to create long-term economic growth, build sustainable and resilient communities and support a low-carbon economy.
Under the program, the federal government covers 40 per cent of eligible costs, the province funds 33 per cent and the remaining 27 per cent is paid for by the Region of Waterloo.
It’s a big undertaking for the region, as it rarely awards projects over $100 million. However, it was deemed a necessity in order for the region to develop a modernized transit system and expand the GRT system with electric buses and articulating buses.
The structure is the fourth maintenance facility in the community. The region has three for conventional buses and one for light-rail vehicles.
The region has a building on Strasburg Road in Kitchener for taking care of buses and another on Conestoga Boulevard in Cambridge. There is also a maintenance and storage building for the region’s ION light rail system on Dutton Drive in Waterloo.
Lane says construction of the facility will provide the necessary fleet maintenance and storage capacity that is required for the region to meet its regional transit ridership goals as established in the Regional Transportation Master Plan and the Grand River Transit Business Plan.
With grade beams being completed, builders will now turn their attention to working on the frame of the structure.
“The construction of the building is a steel-frame, with long-span steel roof trusses in combination with secondary beams and/or roof joists to minimize need for interior columns and roof metal deck,” explains Lane.
Renderings of the structure show a sleek-looking, rectangular building with separate areas for bus storage and maintenance and service lanes. There will also be a two-storey amenities/common area. Special features of the building include skylights over repair bays.
The bus garage and maintenance area will be made of insulated precast concrete panels and the office area will be a triple-glazed wall assembly above a precast concrete base.
The project is anticipated to achieve LEED Silver certification. The roof system will be LEED compliant, consisting of three-ply, hot-applied, built-up roofing.
Lane says the main entrance and office areas of the facility will be accessible via a bridge to take advantage of the site’s natural topography and separate the pedestrian flow from the vehicle flow.
“The facility features energy efficient systems and technologies,” she says. “Sustainable features include vegetated green roof, allowances for future solar panels and electric bus charging, water reclamation systems, LED lighting and energy recovery.”
The structure will be capable of accommodating both regular 41-foot and articulated 62-foot buses. According to the design, the building will have 10 regular bus repair bays, 12 articulated bus repair bays, three inspection pit bays, one degrease bay, one tire bay, two service lanes and bus wash stations and a dedicated cleaning lane.
The building will also have administration, office and parts storage areas and loading docks. There will be 291 outdoor car parking spaces and the building will be equipped with two 600-kilowatt generators for full backup, fuel and fluid storage tanks, underground rainwater capture tanks and a vehicle circulation area.
In anticipation of moving towards an electric bus fleet in the future, the design also has capacity for a pilot program and the ability to phase-in expansion of electric buses to the entire facility.
“Expansion would require the addition of electrical charging infrastructure to be integrated into the existing design,” notes Lane.
The project has been in the works since 2012 when GRT updated its Transit Facilities Strategy which identified a need to expand bus storage and maintenance capacity.
The property, a pie-shaped parcel of land bounded by University Avenue East and Northfield Drive, was acquired two years later.
The project is expected to reach substantial completion by March 2022.
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