PRTC Tries Again with Western Bus Facility

WOODBRIDGE, Va. — It’s a game of back and forth between the federal government and a local transit agency when it comes to building a new $4.8 million bus maintenance facility.

Last night, officials at the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission agreed to have land for a new Westerly Bus Maintenance facility near Manassas re-assessed at the direction of the federal government.

PRTC says the planned facility is crucial to their operation, and the re-assessment process should be complete in January.

The facility is planned for Doane Drive near Intestate 66 and Prince William Parkway in Manassas, and it will help to alleviate overcrowding at the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission headquarters in Woodbridge. The Woodbridge facility houses a mix 140 OmniRide commuter and OmniLink local buses when not in use, but the facility is only designed to accommodate 100 buses. It’s also home to all PRTC staff and contracted employees who operate and maintain the fleet, so the need for a new facility is great.

Earlier this year, PRTC had the Manassas area property for the Westerly Facilityappraised at $4.78 million. Before PRTC takes ownership of the property, it’s in need of road and storm water runoff upgrades — improvements that are under contract to be performed by the current owner of the property before it’s turned over to PRTC.

The new facility is crucial to PRTC’s operation and its construction has been talked about for years. Excited about the appraisal and eager to move forward, PRTC took their $4.8 million assessment to the Federal Transit Administration – the agency that will cough up about $3.8 million for the new facility, leaving the remaining 20 percent to be paid for by state and local matching funds.

But as the transit agency learned it was far from a done deal.

“The Federal Transit Administration balked because the improvements are not yet done,” said PRTC Director Alfred Harf.

PRTC was told to wait until the improvements to the property were complete and then have the land re-appraised, or have the land valued without the upgrades.

Since then, the road upgrades have been completed and now all that’s left are the storm water improvements. The agency plans to have the land re-assesed at a lower rate and then take the new number to the federal government. But PRTC still plans to pay the original assessed price, as Harf says it’s a value to be able to have the storm water upgrades completed for less money by the current owner than having the transit agency do the work.

Another added value says Harf — the seller is completing the improvements to PRTC’s specific designs. Those deigns have prolonged the project but, overall, the effort is not behind schedule.

“If there’s been a delay, there’s been a delay of having submitted an appraisal that we thought would win FTA’s approval only to find out they had a different notion about this, and we have to go back out and do an appraisal a second time,” said Harf.

Also last night, officials moved to give an additional $41,100 for preliminary engineering work for the Westerly Facility property to contractor Kimley-Horn, making for a total contract of $590,000 to complete the work. According to a PRTC document, Kimley-Horn was originally awarded a $499,000 contract with about a $50,000 contingency fund. But “changed conditions” and “additional work efforts” will require additional funding, the document states.

When complete, the new facility will expand PRTC’s bus storage capacity and allow the transit agency to dispatch buses that serve stops in western Prince William County and Greater Manassas from the new facility. This will cut down on the agency’s “dead head” time where buses are driven across the Prince William County with no passengers on board.

PRTC’s OmniRide buses carry commuters from Prince William, Manassas, and Manassas Park to destinations in Arlington and Washington, D.C. OmniLink buses serve local stops in Prince William County, Manassas, and Manassas Park.