The RTS Transit Center Project in Rochester, NY was recently named a 2016 Public Works Project of the Year by the American Public Works Association (APWA). The project is being honored with APWA’s Project of the Year award in the Structures category at a cost between $25 to $75 million. This award honors agencies that include public structure preservation/rehabilitation, municipal buildings and parks.
For 2016, the team of winners includes the RTS Regional Transit Services, New York as the managing agency; The Pike Company, as the primary contractor; and Bergmann Associates as the primary consultant, who will be presented with the award during APWA’s 2016 PWX Conference Awards Ceremony in Minneapolis, MN during August 28-31, 2016.
The APWA Public Works Projects of the Year awards are presented annually to promote excellence in the management and administration of public works projects, recognizing the alliance between the managing agency, contractor, consultant and their cooperative achievements. This year, APWA selected projects in five categories in the Small Cities/Rural Communities area: Disaster/Emergency, Environment, Historical Restoration, Structures, and Transportation.
The Downtown Bus Transit Center provides Rochester, N.Y. with a facility that is common to other cities of similar size. There were over 24,000 passengers a day utilizing bus shelters along Main Street with most transferring to other connecting buses, frequently in harsh weather conditions. The new facility centralizes this activity in a start-of-the-art station. Spanning a city block between St. Paul Street and South Clinton Avenue, the fully-enclosed facility is temperature controlled and customer focused. It also will help the Center City District develop a healthier and more diverse street life by focusing more intensive transit activities in an appropriately designed facility.
The original design objectives for the facility were: (1) to improve the efficiency and overall quality of Regional Transit Service (RTS) operations for customers by providing a better transfer experience at the hub of the network; (2) to minimize the impact of bus operations on pedestrian safety and vehicular traffic in the City of Rochester; (3) to revitalize the street-level activity and promote redevelopment in Downtown Rochester by establishing new focal points and providing pedestrian linkages; and (4) to provide quality architecture which, while modern in design, is complementary to the architectural history of transportation and to the City of Rochester.
The Pike Company provided design-build services for the construction of the new one-story, 87,000-square-foot Transit Center in downtown Rochester. This new facility consists of an enclosed 54,000-square-foot busways on the south and north sides of a glass-enclosed 24,000 concourses where RTS customers can wait for buses in a controlled environment. The facility also includes a 12,000-square-foot operations support building.
The Pike Company, working in association with Bergmann Associates as A/E of Record, was motivated to make this unique project a success. This 87,000-square-foot facility consists of four main sections: two busways that run in opposite directions; a temperature-controlled pedestrian concourse containing 28 gates; and a two-story operations building for administrative personnel. The building can accommodate 26 buses at one time.
The Transit Center was originally scheduled to be opened in early 2015, but with the successful cooperation of RTS, The Pike Company, Bergmann Associates, and the 20 construction subcontractors, all opportunities were explored to expedite turnover of the final product without need for acceleration and extra cost to the owner. The RTS Transit Center officially opened on November 28, 2014, two and a half months ahead of Pike’s original schedule and five months ahead of RTS’s original scheduled opening.
For more information on the APWA 2016 Projects of the Year, please contact APWA Media Relations and Communications Manager, Laura Bynum, [email protected], or call 202.218.6736.
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