The Metro Regional Transit Authority plans to build a $15 million bus transfer terminal at the corner of Bartges Street and South Broadway on about 4 acres of city-owned land that Akron is donating to the project to leverage federal money.
The new terminal would replace Main Street as the primary location where passengers change buses.
Metro General Manager Bob Pfaff said Tuesday that the project is expected to begin in April 2008 and will be completed within 18 months. Metro hopes Greyhound Bus Co. will move its Akron station to the site so out-of-town passengers can easily transfer to city buses when they arrive.
The recently passed federal transportation bill includes funding for the new bus terminal, and the city's land contribution counts toward most of the local match required to get the federal money.
Increased traffic on Main Street -- where passengers have changed buses for about 20 years -- has made it dangerous for passengers to change buses, Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic said, admitting that he nearly hit a person.
Police have also had problems with large groups of high school students who get into fights while changing buses downtown in the afternoon.
The new transfer station will be enclosed, protecting passengers from bad weather, and it will be easier to control because it will all be on Metro property, Pfaff said.
The terminal will have information, restrooms, a small shop for passenger amenities and possibly a tourist information center.
Pfaff and Plusquellic have been working for the last couple of years to find a site.
Originally, the city purchased land for that purpose at East Market and Prospect streets where the former Taylor Pontiac dealership was located.
However, a telemarketing firm recently purchased the former Bureau of Employment Services building nearby. In between the two properties sits the historic Mayer Building (Akron's former downtown post office), which the city also is trying to develop in a way that will preserve its historic features.
The parking demands of a transfer station and the telemarketing firm would hamper a new tenant of the Mayer Building.
``We saw the Mayer Building being squeezed,'' Plusquellic said.
The city is working on deals for the Mayer Building and the former car lot but is not ready to make any announcements.
The Broadway and Bartges site will put the terminal next to ECD Ovonics' new hydrogen storage tank testing facility in the former Akron Steel Treating Co.
Pfaff said Metro has already applied for state and federal money to conduct a hydrogen fuel cell demonstration project with some of the buses.
Those buses could be fueled at the hydrogen fueling station that Ovonics will build next to the testing facility. |
