Transit ‘barely managing’ in garage
Maintenance facility expansion open house Jan. 19
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This article was published 17/01/2017 (3320 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Winnipeg Transit is setting the wheels in motion for another expansion in Lord Roberts.
Transit is planning to build a 60,000-square-foot addition to its maintenance facilities just two years after it completed a 135,000-square-foot garage expansion in 2014.
The new shop will be built atop the existing employee parking lot and attached to the current maintenance and repair facilities along Brandon Avenue. It is estimated to cost $53.2 million and is funded by all three levels of government.
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According to Tim VanDekerkhove, project manager with Transit, the new garage will include work bays and hoists for mechanics, upgraded paint shop and welding facilities, as well as increased storage and repair space for the electronics and technology Transit employs.
“The garage was first built almost 50 years ago to satisfy a certain fleet size. That was quite a while ago and fleet size has increased significantly. Since that time I think the number is about a 26 per cent increase,” VanDekerkhove said. “Right now we’re barely managing and we’re very cramped. Buses are stacked in alleys with things waiting to be fixed.”
The facility off Osborne Street is Transit’s sole heavy maintenance facility and with recent growth in the City’s fleet of buses, VanDekerkhove said the expansion will help Transit’s maintenance program get up to speed.
Instead of working individually on issues when they arise, mechanics are forced to work two to a bus due to a lack of hoists, VanDekerkhove said. The addition will also provide some space to account for future growth.
“Right now we’re trying to get to where we need to be to satisfy our current needs, but also we’re building in some extra capacity,” he explained.
Bev Pike, co-ordinator of the South Osborne Residents’ Group, said the organization hopes Transit will address ongoing concerns around parking, traffic, noise and pollution in the community before going forward with any new expansion on the campus.
Pike said during the 2014, $22-million garage expansion, Transit said it would provide berms, landscaping and build a healthy distance from residences. Yet when the project was complete, the new storage garage was in “spitting distance” of homeowners’ back doors, Pike said.
“They did the exact opposite and they destroyed their (the homeowners’) view,” she said. “It makes people have very little faith in the process.”
VanDekerkhove said he has heard from the neighbours that they weren’t kept informed during previous projects and expectations were not met.
“We want them to know that they’re included in this process very early and we’re intent on doing this a different way,” he said.
The City will hold an open house on the maintenance garage expansion project on Jan. 19 from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at the Fort Rouge Leisure Centre (625 Osborne St.).