Jan 30, 2015 3 min read

Work is expected to start this spring on the second floor of Washington City Transit’s intermodal bus depot, meaning the facility could open to riders and transit staff later this summer about a year behind schedule.

The transit authority is now soliciting bids for the final phase of the project that will finish the second floor of the building designed for Washington Rides unless the two agencies merge.

City Transit Director Joe Thomas said if the bids come in at the March 2 deadline on budget, the final work will likely start in April and take about three months to complete. The amount of work is minimal, he said, and includes installing carpeting, ceilings and overhead lighting. The bulk of the work was completed in the first phase of construction, he said.

Thomas added that City Transit, which will occupy the first floor, could move in now, but will wait until the work upstairs is completed so the contractors can have staging areas.

“We’ll wait to see how it shake out because we still have to purchase furniture for the passenger area,” Thomas said of when City Transit will move into the first floor. “It’s obviously easier (for them to work) if we’re not trying to operate out of downstairs as well.”

The $3.7 million transit hub on East Chestnut Street was supposed to open last June, but weather delays and design changes pushed that target date back again. A delay in West Penn Power connecting electricity to the building pushed back other work needing to be completed inside, meaning more lengthy delays.

Thomas said City Transit will likely have to channel money originally earmarked to purchase a new bus to pay to finish the second floor.

Discussions are continuing whether City Transit and Washington Rides will merge, but that shouldn’t affect the intermodal facility. Although Washington Rides is set to move into the upstairs portion of the building, a merged transit agency would be an easy switch to utilize the entire facility.

“From a practical standpoint, it doesn’t matter because the building would still be used for office space and passenger waiting areas if it was two providers or a consolidated service,” Thomas said.

The opening date can’t come soon enough considering planning for the intermodal transit hub began in 2009, and construction at the site of the city’s former East Chestnut Street parking garage started in August 2013. The project is nearly a year behind schedule.

“We’d obviously like to get that thing manned as soon as possible,” Washington Mayor Brenda Davis said.