(Source: Lancaster New Era)
By Bernard Harris, Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era, Pa.
Aug. 20--It took the Red Rose Transit Authority board just 20 minutes to spend nearly $21 million Wednesday evening.
But it took a lot longer to get to that point.
After two years of planning, the board voted to award more than $15 million in contracts for the construction of the second phase of its Queen Street Station.
The project includes a 10,000-square-foot expansion of the Lancaster Museum of Art along the 200 block of North Queen Street, the expansion of the existing bus station to link it with East Chestnut Street, and construction of a 395-space parking garage.
The garage is being built in a way that would support the later construction of a 38-unit condominium tower that could rise above it to 16 stories.
RRTA also awarded $5.9 million in contracts to renovate the authority's Erick Road administrative and maintenance facility.
Upgrades to the 30-year-old facility are designed to make it energy efficient. Plans call for geothermal heating and cooling, skylights, solar panels, a green roof and a waste-oil burner which would convert used oil from RRTA's fleet of buses into heat for the buildings.
Estimates show RRTA's energy use at the facility could be cut by 75 percent with the changes.
Executive Director David Kilmer said that while the two projects account for a lot of money, it could have been more.
Projections were for the downtown project to cost an additional $700,000 and the Erick Road project, off Dillerville Road, to cost an additional $3.8 million.
"There is a very tight bidding environment out there and we're benefiting from it, for once," Kilmer said.
With the awarding of contracts, construction on both projects is expected to begin within a month, Kilmer said.
Work at North Queen and East Chestnut streets, at the former Empire TV parking lot, is expected to be completed in a year. Work at the Erick Road facility is slated to be done in 10 months.
In preparation for the renovation work on Erick Road, RRTA's administrative offices will move Monday to the second floor of the existing Queen Street Station, at 225 N. Queen St.
The low bidders for the Queen Street Station project were: ï® Perrotto Builders Ltd., of Reading, general construction, $12,894,000.ï® Vision Mechanical Inc., of West Reading, plumbing and fire protection, $785,000. ï® Garden Spot Mechanical Inc., Manheim, heating, ventilation and cooling, $185,000. ï® Shannon A. Smith Inc., Myerstown, electrical, $1.2 million. The low bidders for the Erick Road project were: ï® ECI Construction LLC, of Dillsburg, general construction, $2,405,000.ï® Garden Spot Mechanical Inc., Manheim, mechanical construction, $950,000. ï® Garden Spot Mechanical Inc., Manheim, plumbing, $382,000. ï® Ray Angelini Inc., Sewell, N.J., solar energy construction, $987,560. The electrical contract was not awarded for the Erick Road renovations due to a paperwork error in bid documents submitted by the company with the lowest bid.
Because the difference between the two lowest bidders was more than $100,000, Kilmer recommended that the contract be rebid, if necessary, rather than accept the higher cost.
Funding for the Queen Street Station project is coming mostly from congressional earmarks in federal transportation funding bills.
The Erick Road renovations are being paid from federal economic stimulus funds.
E-mail: bharris@lnpnews.com.
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