Sam Gurwitt Photo
A new facility will allow GNHTD to meet its growing needs.
To accommodate increasing demand and a growing fleet, the Hamden-based Greater New Haven Transit District (GNHTD) is planning construction a state-of-the-art facility in North Haven.
The GNHTD Board of Directors met Wednesday morning in an auditorium on Sherman Avenue in Hamden to discuss, among other topics, the planned construction of the new facility.
GNHTD, a public agency, runs the “My Ride” service. It provides point-to-point rides to people who cannot use CT Transit’s fixed-route bus service. The district serves 21 New Haven-area municipalities, and has 10 member towns that pay membership dues. People with a permanent or temporary disability can request a ride through the Amble app, online, or by phone to anywhere within the 21-town service area.
The district also operates a Regional Rides Program, for which anyone from a member town who is over 60 or has a disability is eligible. Finally, it has a partnership with the town of Hamden that provides residents with rides to and from the senior center.
GNHTD currently operates out of two buildings on Sherman Avenue in Hamden. One it owns; and one it leases.
Around 10 years ago, GNHTD determined that it needed more space. Since then, that need has only grown.
“Our current facilities do not come close to meeting our operational needs based on our staff size, our fleet size, etc.” Executive Director Kimberly Dunham told the Independent.
In the five years Dunham has been at GNHTD, the district has expanded its fleet from 60 to 86 vehicles.
“We change every day,” she explained. GNHTD receives around 100 new applications from prospective clients each month. It provides, on average, 230,000 trips annually, and has a total of 160 employees.
Board of Directors Vice-Chair Doug Hausladen, Executive Director Kim Dunham, Attorney Niclas Ferland.
The current facilities lack the technical capacities that the district needs to meet its growing needs. Up until recently, for example, buses were cleaned by bucket and mop. The agency bought an automatic cleaning unit eight months ago, but that is still not enough to accommodate such a large fleet.
GNHTD bought a property at 333 State St. in North Haven in November 2017 for the new facility. The site is currently home to two buildings that are slated to be demolished by June 2019. GNHTD plans to sell its property at 840 Sherman Ave.
When it’s complete, the new facility will house all of GNHTD’s operations in one place. It will have parking for the entire fleet, as well as advanced maintenance facilities. It will also have some indoor parking space to protect busses from inclement weather.
Cost estimates are mere speculation at this point; one assessment projected a total cost of $25 – 30 million for the facility.
Richard Andreski and Dennis Solensky of the CT Department of Transportation (DOT) presented to the board on the next steps in the process.
“We are really excited to get this moving,” said Solenski, who serves as a public transit administrator for the state DOT.
But first, GNHTD and the DOT need to work out a few details.
Discussion at the meeting focused on the collaboration between the DOT and GNHTD. The DOT, which has expertise in facility construction and management, will handle the logistics of construction and will have a hand in many of the operations once the facility is complete. It requested that GNHTD sign over the title to the 333 State St. property to the state. Under the requested arrangement, the state would own the property and GNHTD would lease it.
The board will hold a meeting in the next two weeks to determine whether it will go ahead and sign ownership of the property over to the DOT.
The 333 State St. location will also provide an opportunity for closer coordination with CT Transit, which has a facility just down the road. The proximity will allow GNHTD and CT Transit to enter into joint agreements with contractors for services such as snow removal and HVAC maintenance.
Similar agreements already exist between GNHTD and CT Transit, and the new facility will simply expand this type of collaboration. Though CT Transit and GNHTD are separate entities, “we are all partners in every sense,” Dunham told the Independent. “There is a lot of sense in consolidating service agreements.”
The details of joint contracts will need to be worked out. Dunham raised a concern in the meeting that if GNHTD is not in direct control of its service contracts, it might have to go to the DOT more in order to run its regular operations.
One board member also brought up the issue of snow removal. If the GNHTD had a joint snow removal contract with CT Transit, he said, CT Transit might get plowed out before GNHTD on snowy days.
Solenksy told the board that he and the DOT have been encouraging districts in recent years to pool resources more in order to increase efficiency. Savings for greater efficiency can be used to provide more service, he explained.
Dennis Solensky: “We are committed to designing it and building it as rapidly as possible.”
Solensky said he hopes to write up a draft of the agreement determining the DOT-GNHTD relationship within 60 days. “We’re committed to designing it and building it as rapidly as possible,” he said of the facility.
Though there is no telling how long the construction process will take, Dunham said she hopes it will be complete in two and a half years. Perhaps three years is more realistic, she added.
Once it is built, it should put GNHTD in a good position for many years to come.
“This building should be built for 40 years into the future,” Dunham told the Independent. “What this really is about is long-term visioning.”
Wondering why Hamden was not chosen as the site for expansion?