CU receives federal funds for downtown bus station

CU will receive $1.47 million from the department, according to an announcement from U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, who secured the funding in the fiscal 2008 Omnibus Appropriations bill. The funds are in addition to about $1.6 million released by the Department of Transportation last September.

With just more than $3 million in hand, CU officials continue to search for a center city site to relocate the bus station, currently at McDaniel Street and Patton Avenue, and build an intermodal transfer facility, CU Transit Director Carol Cruise said. The utility is about 10 months into a feasibility study led by Esterly Schneider & Associates Inc. and Kansas City firm TranSystems to pinpoint an ideal downtown spot.

A location could be determined by the end of the summer, according to Cruise. It’s too early to know the project’s cost, she said, but a preliminary estimate in 2007 pegged it at about $4 million.

The facility will have loading stations, indoor passenger amenities such as restrooms and office space for transit system staff. The existing station is land-locked – preventing expansion – and too confined for CU’s buses, according to previous SBJ coverage.

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