GRTC Goes Green for New Era of Service | Metro Magazine

The Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC) is the oldest mass transportation system in the U.S., currently celebrating its 150th anniversary. For more than 100 years, GRTC maintained its operations out of its old Cary Street facilities. Moving into the 21st century, it became evident that these old facilities on Cary Street could no longer support the GRTC fleet, lacking the optimal infrastructure, configuration, building systems, and operational equipment required for efficient daily operations.rn
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GRTC conducted an extensive search for a new site to construct a new operations and maintenance facility that could also double as its corporate headquarters to support the company for the next 150 years. A new site and facilities needed to accommodate more than 560 employees in operations, maintenance, and administration, as well as service and store its active fleet of buses and para-transit vehicles.rnrnThe recently completed GRTC bus operations and maintenance complex, located on Belt Boulevard in Richmond, Va., is a fully functional facility that services a fleet of approximately 188 buses (standard 40-foot buses, future articulated buses, and over-the-road buses), para-transit vehicles, and vans, which serve the greater Richmond area. rnrnThe new building houses all 560 employees working in operations, maintenance, and administration. The 12-acre site accommodates outdoor bus storage, a three-story 26,600-square-foot Administration Building for all GRTC operations, and an adjacent two-story 100,600-square-foot Maintenance Building, requiring two separate building permits. The Maintenance Building includes fueling lanes, automatic bus washers, maintenance bays for bus inspections, trouble work, light and heavy maintenance, and a body shop complete with a downdraft paint booth to accommodate articulated buses. rnrnThe project is the first public building in Richmond to achieve the U.S. Green Building Council for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Silver Level certification.rnrnHoward Shockey & Sons, Inc served as the general contractor and Gannett Fleming served as construction manager.rn