Baltimore Elected Officials, Community Members Celebrate Kirk Avenue Bus Facility Groundbreaking
Baltimore City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings, Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) Secretary Jim Smith and other dignitaries broke ground November 26 on the $53 million Kirk Avenue bus facility project in Baltimore, Maryland.
JMT and our joint venture partner Gannett Fleming are providing architectural and engineering design services for the modernization project, which includes expanding the site to accommodate a new 15-bay, 100,000 square foot bus maintenance facility to support clean-fuel bus operations, maintenance, inspection and repair.
Mayor Rawlings-Blake thanked the many local community and business associations, many of which were present, for their support on the project.
“As a team we are investing in our neighborhoods and critical infrastructure that will help our city grow while ensuring a better quality of life for the entire community,” Rawlings-Blake said. “This project is a great example of how businesses, transit hubs, neighborhoods and schools can coexist and work together for a better Baltimore.”
The 6.7-acre facility, owned by the Maryland Transit Administration, was constructed in 1947 to provide a bus operating transportation maintenance and storage facility. The existing facility only allowed a reduced number of activities and had become severely constrained. These conditions raised community concerns due to noise, as buses frequently moved due to the lack of storage space.
Rep. Cummings commented on the cooperation between the community where the facility is located and those working to improve it: “This is what happens when community works with the elected [officials] and we’re able to come together to make a difference,” he said. “We really do appreciate you.”
Secretary Smith added, “This facility is going to enable us to deliver the kind of service, the kind of quality service, the people of Baltimore are entitled to, and it’s going be able to do it at the same time as partnering with the community in which the facility is located.”
US Department of Transportation Deputy Secretary John Porcari also wrote about the project’s significance in a post on the department’s official blog. Read the post here: http://www.dot.gov/fastlane/kirk-bus-facility
The first phase of the project is scheduled to open in 2015.
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