Reducing Impacts of Transit Properties on Their Neighbors, Regions and the Environment
Transit improvements can create significant economic opportunities for communities. However, improved transit systems often require a major investment in facilities and can be subject to intense scrutiny due to potential impact on their immediate neighbors. The reason is that transit facilities can occupy significant acreage, are often industrial in nature and require 24/7 operations. By making big picture decisions early in a project, these aspects can be positively addressed. In addition, proactive planning and design can reduce overall life cycle costs of the project. These life cycle costs significantly impact the long term bottom line of every transit agency.
Many U.S. transit agencies’ facilities are aging and in need of significant upgrades or complete replacement. This article discusses the importance of the early stages of planning and design for facility improvements and new construction projects. Although there are myriad factors that should be considered, this discussion will focus on five critical topics which help reduce the impact of transit facilities: innovation, operations, flexibility, energy, and water.
Innovation
Over the past decade sustainable design has been a hot topic. Building codes continually change in an effort to create more energy efficient structures. Improved fuel efficiency of transit vehicles is also paramount to the long term financial health of transit agencies. The changes in building codes reflect local climates and designs for new facilities will vary greatly depending on geography.
In cold climates, as an example, getting vehicles inside and protecting them from the elements is essential. Although engine block heaters have been used for decades, these systems only ensure that vehicles start during the coldest months, but block heaters fail to provide warm, ice free, thermally comfortable environments to the first passengers of the day. In Jackson, Wyo., the Southern Teton Area Rapid Transit (START) Bus transit service provides access to the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort for visitors and employees alike while providing quality commuter service into Jackson. Cold weather often requires buses to be idled starting at 4 a.m., and in cases of extreme cold weather, buses may be left running all night. By building an indoor bus storage facility, 50 hours of daily idling time can be eliminated, preventing 7,000 gallons worth of emissions annually. Annual cost savings are estimated to include $30,000 for fuel, $70,000 in reduced maintenance and $300,000 for the longer life of the buses.
Indoor bus storage alone is not innovative. However, creating a facility that allows for all operating procedures to take place under one roof, impacts of transit operations on surrounding residential neighborhoods are greatly reduced. Vehicle movements, washing, fare retrieval and maintenance can occur inside the structure, out of view of neighborhood residents. Additionally, as can be seen in the Jorgensen Associates/RNL/MDG-designed START Bus facility (currently being constructed by GE Johnson Construction), indoor operations protect the environment. START Bus is located adjacent to a migratory wildlife corridor in which mule deer regularly come down from the surrounding hills at night to feed and drink at the nearby creek. By enclosing the facility, designers have minimized headlights, tailights, backing noises and service cycle vehicle circulation that would have a long term, negative effect on the mule deer and other migratory wildlife, as well as surrounding residents. This indoor facility can also reduce accidents between transit buses and large animals. Significantly, this indoor design removes employees from extreme weather conditions reducing lost man hours due to injury and, as a result, decreases the number of workers’ compensation claims. Overall winter vehicle maintenance costs will be reduced by an estimated 20 to 30 percent.
Another innovative feature of the START project is due to the town’s topography which is irregular, consisting primarily of hillsides that look down on the valley floor below. Much of the town’s businesses and government buildings are built on the valley floor but many residences look down upon the rooftops of the structures below. Because the new START facility is located next to a preserved open space and because of the facility’s size, a five sided design approach was necessary. The aesthetics of the roof from above is just as important as its aesthetic from ground level. Sloped roofs over significant footprints create structures with very tall ridge lines and large expanses of unnecessary volumes of space. In order to keep the volumes of space to a minimum height, the team designed the facility with flat roofs. However, instead of having a view of large expanses of membrane roofs, the facility breaks up the view of its roof by utilizing a 16,200 square foot vegetated roof and a 110 kW photovoltaic solar panel system. As seen from above, residents will discern a large green roof blending into the open space grass meadow, while the solar panels provide renewable energy to power the building below.
Operations
New facilities are inherently more energy efficient than facilities that were constructed more than 20 years ago because of changes in building codes and advances in technology that ensure that new buildings are more efficient than their generational predescessors. Costs to maintain and operate transit facilities are a component of the operational bottom line that transit agencies cannot ignore. Federal funding for transit has been reduced significantly over the past decade making operational cost reductions to transit properties a long term policy level decision.
At the new division 13 bus operation and maintenance facility for Los Angeles Metro (designed by MDG/RNL and currently being constructed by McCarthy Building Companies), the efforts to achieve life cycle cost improvements were more challenging due to a tight urban site. Because of the space needs necessary to support and maintain a 200 CNG powered bus fleet, the implemented design solution created a multi-level operations, maintenance and parking facility that structures bus and employee parking with service functions resulting in a reduced footprint. This reduced footprint allows for reduced heat island effect, reduced stormwater runoff, and reduced quantities of exterior envelope construction. The facility is pursuing a LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council and features a vegetated roof, rainwater and stormwater harvesting and reuse systems, as well as xeric low-maintenance native vegetation and photovolataic panels on the structure’s south facade and roof. These PV panels are not only an overall design feature but also double as parking screens blocking views into the facility from the street. Additionally, the buildings energy management system will integrate with Metro’s utility submetering system that will be capable of monitoring the facility’s consumption of potable water, natural gas, electricity and quantity of facility effluence.
Flexibility
Facility design begins with the programming phase which is used to size the facility for immediate needs, short term growth needs (7 to 10 years) and long term needs (20 years or more), providing for needed flexibility now and in the future. At the new START Bus Facility the first phase of construction accomodates indoor bus parking for 26 buses and the associated operational support and service of the fleet. However, the full design bus storage will expand to accomodate a fleet of 42 buses and 12 maintenance bays to service the transit vehicles along with the Town of Jackson and Teton County vehicles. A centralized maintenance facility for both transit and government vehicles is essential for controlling operational costs for the town and county. Although expansions are necessary and will include expanded administration and operations facilities, the first phase of construction is designed to minimize impacts of future construction projects while keeping it the facility operational.
At the new City Utilities (CU) Transit facility in Springfield, Mo., H Design Group/MDG led the design of an expansion to an existing campus that includes a 100-year old historic building. Through master planning efforts, the design team integrated the structure both aesthetically and functionally while providing a phased plan to create modern facilities.
With construction completed in 2013, the new bus storage and maintenance facility allow CU Transit to securely store up to 40 full size transit buses in a heated, indoor storage facility. The bus storage facility is minimally heated by a combination of an efficient hydronic radiant floor heating system and a high efficiency exhaust ventilation system. Together, these two systems provide the most cost effective method for heating the space while simultaneously venting exhaust fumes. The new fueling, fare recovery and bus wash facilities enable CU Transit to keep all bus movements related to storage, refueling, and washing on the campus and in a safe counterclockwise flow. The design also includes upgrades to existing maintenance facilities.
Energy
Reduced energy consumption equates to a reduction in operational costs for decades to come. Large transit facilities provide incredible opportunities to produce photovoltaic energy, heated water for heating and cooling systems, and heated water for use in the plumbing systems contained within the facilities’ footprint.
Sustainable design essentially means doing more with less. By reducing the energy demands of a project through increased insulation and the use of daylight to reduce or even eliminate the need for artificial lighting during the day, agencies can realize tremendous monthly energy savings.
Reduction in energy demand requires a balanced and a whole-systems approach. Glazing along the exterior walls is essential, however daylight will not penetrate into the deeper interior spaces. Solar tubes are an innovative way to bring daylight deep into buildings while also minimizing cost.
Bringing daylight into a building is the first step. The second step is to ensure that the lighting systems are turned off or dimmed automatically as lighting levels change inside the building. Daylight harvesting is a 21st Century approach to building design. These systems’ technologies have advanced tremendously over the past 10 years and can now be controlled remotely.
Artificial lighting will always be necessary despite the advances in daylighting technology. LED lighting was once expensive. However, the cost of these systems has dramatically reduced over time. They are still more expensive than standard flourescent bulb fixtures, but their life cycle costs continue to decline meaning their long term costs are making these systems financially competitive. They require less long term maintenance and replacement of bulbs and ballasts is less frequent. Ultimately, the owner must make the decision as to whether the duration of energy paybacks are acceptable for their specific project. However, expanding this timeline from five years to ten or even twenty years on a building that is being designed and constructed for a long life cycle, can provide significant energy cost savings over time.
Water
Like energy conservation, water conservation strategies are just as important over the life of a facility. Transit operations require large volumes of water to clean and maintain vehicles. Vehicle washes account for the largest majority of water consumption in these facilities. Innovative wash systems improve consumption through the use of recycling systems which can recycle upwards of 80 percent to 100 percent of the rinse water used to wash vehicles. The recycled rinse water is then used multiple times in the remainder of the wash cycle.
At the new division 13 bus operations and maintenance facility currently being constructed in downtown Los Angeles water conservation strategies for vehicle washing are being taken to the next level. The project’s two bus washers will utilize rain and stormwater runoff from the building structure and adjacent driveways, funneled through a series of vortex and active filtration and water treatment components before being stored in two water storage tanks capable of holding a combined 325,000 gallons. This water will be used multiple times before the system flushes and refills with new captured water. In dry times, the bus wash system will recycle and treat its own wastewater to be reused in main wash and rinse cycles thereby only using potable water for make-up water and during the final rinse cycle. While not connected to the on-site reclaimed water system, the remotely located non-revenue vehicle washer will also utilize a similar water reclamation system to indefinitely recycle and treat its own wastewater. In addition, all domestic plumbing fixtures within the facility are low flow, further contributing to 45 percent potable water consumption savings over traditional flow fixtures. Further potable water reduction is anticipated by using xeric landscaping as opposed to traditional turf and by utilizing irrigation system rain sensors which will save an anticipated 59 percent in landscape irrigation water use.
“The storm water collection and recycling system is designed to collect all of the annual rainfall on the division 13’s O&M Facility site,” Tim Lindholm, deputy executive officer, capital projects for LA Metro, said. “Los Angeles annually averages about 15 inches of rain, mostly in the winter months and our rain water collection system will replace 325,000 gallons minimum annually which otherwise would have come from the water utility. Water conservation and stewardship of our resources is a core value at LA Metro. Our bus wash water harvesting and recycling systems are a 21st century system and can be implemented anywhere across the country.”
Transit facilities have the potential to greatly influence their regions and communities. These influences are positive when facilities are designed to create opportunities through innovation, operations, and flexibility, as well as energy and water savings. The very mission of transit operators is to provide increased mobility while reducing traffic congestion and improving local air quality through reduced emissions. These facilities require innovation and design specific to their geographic contexts. They need to be designed for operational excellence which necessitates the functional requirements of both the employees and the transit vehicles. New facilities must be designed to be flexible enough to accommodate future organizational changes while maintaining primary elements of master plans that serve the organization. Energy efficient strategies and systems reduce operational costs, decrease the overall global demand for energy, but more importantly can become energy contributors by producing more energy than consumed. Water efficiency and re-use greatly reduces the demand quantities needed to keep vehicles clean to meet the demands of their customers. Funding new transit properties has become increasingly difficult while public use of transit systems is at its highest point since 1957, according to recent studies by APTA. Visionary leadership reduces the impacts of transit properties - vital for communities and essential for transit organizations in maintaining the bottom line.
Merlin Maley of RNL and Jon Holler of Maintenance Design Group each have nearly 20 years of facility planning and design expereince. RNL and MDG have worked together on over 150 transit-related projects throughout the United States including START and Metro Division 13 referenced in this article.
