Come this winter, if it ever roars in, New Haven’s bus-riding public will be able to enjoy five new shelters from the wind and the cold, sustainably designed and heated for waiting riders’ comfort. And it won’t cost tax payers a dime … well, maybe just a dime.
<The first of the five shelters, all of which are at main transfer points, this one at Temple and Elm, was ceremonially opened on Tuesday by Mayor DeStefano and a small cast of notables including Harry Townsend.
Townsend represented the Proprietors of the Green, which, by law, had to approve the design of the two shelters that are adjacent to the Green. He told the mayor genially as hizzoner snipped away with the ceremonial scissors that he did not think he would live long enough to see the structures finished, but indeed he had.
The project architect David Thompson (pictured at the top of this story) said that the Temple and Elm shelter and its identical twin on Chapel just east of Temple have a hipped roof and mullioned windows that echo a traditional or 19th century quality. Two other shelters (pictured below) which will be finished by the end of this week, are in front of 55 Church St., between Crown and Center.
These are more modern in appearance, he said, and in function. Instead of the hipped roof, the roofs will feature literally green, living green plants called cedum. Related to succulents and requiring a bare minimum of care, weeding, he said, perhaps twice a year, the cedum will absorb rain water and re-evaporate it. All the shelters will feature a heater inside a protecting grate in the ceiling, which is triggered by a motion sensor.
“That means,” said Thompson, “that if no one’s in there, no energy will be expended. The system will be off.” The heating will function between five in the morning and midnight.
As architect Thompson, Donna Carter, the executive director of the Greater New Haven Transit District, and the city engineer Richard Miller looked on, the mayor said that on this beautiful sunny afternoon was not the time to truly appreciate the five shelters. “People will, kids and the elderly will on cold winter days. And these attractive shelters are a spur for more people to use mass transit. New Haven, unlike other cities,” he said, “does not have a central bus depot. So these five shelters all were positioned at major transfer points.” The police, said the mayor, will make sure they are not abused.
Unlike the current steel shelters, which the mayor said have not fared well with time and have corroded, the aluminum supports and the blue stone bases of the five new structures are strong. They should last a hundred years and be easy to maintain. And the cost of maintenance should not be high either. City Engineer Miller estimated the light and heat will cost $400 to 500 a year per shelter.
The fifth shelter, which is in an earlier state of construction to be finished by the end of November, is on Temple at Crown in front of the Amalfi Restaurant. Randy Poxson, an owner of general contractor Paragon Construction, was not in pain but actually enthusiastic as he explained that this is his favorite of the five shelters designed by Thompson. “It has these impressive columns,” he said, “and it is going to be set in a curved space in front of the restaurant, so the whole structure has this softer quality than the others.” It has fewer seats than the other shelters, but, like them, between seated and standing room, should be able to accommodate comfortably 15 to 20 riders.
Funding for the $1.5 million project came 80 percent through the federal government’s Federal Transit Administration and 20 percent through the state. While the mayor was not adamant about the possibility of more built on this prototype, he indicated no more heated shelters were in the planning and that these were appropriate specifically for downtown locations and transfer points.
$1.5 million in FTA money and this is the best we could come up with? Heated urinal... ... I mean, bus stops? Yes, heated stops are nice, but it's a luxury. With $1.5 million we could improve service to the disabled or add a bus route. Or fix the horrible signal timing that snarls traffic. Sorry, but it's just not that cold here for that long. This city's priorities are all f***ed up.