RTC breaks ground on $17 million downtown transit center

By Kyle B. Hansen

Monday, Aug. 31, 2009 | 4:10 p.m.

The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada broke ground Monday on its Bonneville Transit Center in downtown Las Vegas.

The $17 million transit center will be the main terminal for the RTC’s new ACE bus lines, scheduled to begin service early next year.

“This Bonneville Transit Center is going to be the hub of our transportation system, exactly where it needs to be in downtown Las Vegas,” U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) said at the ceremony.

The new facility on the southwest corner of Casino Center Boulevard and Bonneville Avenue is designed to accommodate people taking various methods of transportation.

It will have preferred parking for hybrid vehicles, 100 bike parking spaces and air-conditioned waiting areas for bus passengers.

Speakers at the event hailed the new center as the key piece of the RTC’s efforts to increase the number of people in the valley who take public transit.

“This facility certainly is helping us reinvent transit in Southern Nevada to get those people out of their cars -– and we certainly love our cars in Southern Nevada,” said Clark County Commissioner Larry Brown, the RTC board chairman.

“We have to make our system comfortable, convenient and consistent, and this facility goes a long way to accomplish that,” he said.

The center will include a 1,800-square-foot bicycle station with showers, restrooms and a bike repair shop, in addition to the bike parking.

“It’s going to bike-friendly,” Brown said. “For the cyclists in the valley, this is going to be the premier place to truly combine a transit ride with your cycling abilities.”

General Manager Jacob Snow, an avid cyclist, showed up to the event in his riding clothes.

RTC buses currently carry about 60,000 bicycles each month, he said, more than the larger transit system in famously bike-friendly Portland, Ore., Snow said.

The newer buses hold three bicycles on the front rack, and the new ACE buses have three bike hangers inside the vehicle.

The facility is also designed to be as green as possible, with solar panels and water-efficient landscaping. The commission is seeking a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification for the building.

Berkley said the facility is an example of how federal money is helping the area in difficult economic times.

“This project is paid for almost exclusively from federal dollars,” she said. “The money that we pay into the federal tax system comes back big time to this community when it comes to transportation projects, and I am very pleased to have been able to help bring some of this money home.”

The facility received $5.5 million in funds from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act and additional money from congressional earmarks and federal grants.

“At a time in this community where we’re having high unemployment and a lot of our construction workers aren’t able to find a job, these shovel-ready projects, which this particular project represents, will mean the difference between thousands of people getting a paycheck and doing a great job for us and thousands that are home idle,” Berkley said.

All of the RTC’s new ACE bus lines, which use larger buses designed to look like train cars, will stop at the new downtown center and utilize the dedicated bus lanes being built on Casino Center Boulevard.

The ACE Gold line will go from the transit center to the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Strip and is expected to begin service next spring.

Also next year, the ACE Express C line will connect downtown to the new Centennial Hills Transit Center.

The RTC also plans an ACE Green line that will eventually go down Boulder Highway to Henderson. Future lines are also planed for Sahara Avenue and Flamingo Road.

The RTC also opened its new bus maintenance facility last week, which will service the new buses and many of the other vehicles in the commission’s fleet.