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The South Bend Public Transportation Corporation (TRANSPO) in South Bend, IN, broke ground July 1 for its new operations, administration, and maintenance facility, with such invited guests as Peter M. Rogoff, administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, and Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) helping to turn shovelfuls of earth.

“This facility will not only provide the people of South Bend with the 21st-century transit system they need and deserve, but it will also mean a cleaner environment, as well as the immediate and long-term creation of jobs,” Rogoff said. TRANSPO has received $18.3 million in federal transit funds for the project, including a $3.7 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grant; it is the largest transit development in the state in more than a decade.

Construction is scheduled to begin this summer on the 167,000-square-foot structure, which will house all functional areas for TRANSPO’s bus operations. It will be named for Emil (Lucky) Reznik, a member of the TRANSPO board since its establishment in 1967 who currently serves as its secretary.

The new TRANSPO building will be the first structure in South Bend’s Ignition Park, a development for businesses in the high-tech manufacturing and commercial industry located in a brownfield area in the former Studebaker corridor. The agency’s current facility, located along the St. Joseph River in South Bend, has been in continuous use since the 1880s and has surpassed its useful life.

“The Studebaker corridor is a place where a lot of history was made, and now we have turned the corner in ensuring the continued vitality of Ignition Park for the next generation of Hoosiers,” Bayh said. “Not only will the TRANSPO facility offer a critical service and preserve local jobs, it will help create green jobs of the future in a way that’s good for our natural environment….South Bend is setting a national example for how to provide public transportation options in an energy-saving, economical, and environmentally friendly way.”

In addition, the building is on track to become the nation’s first LEED Platinum transit facility and the first Platinum structure of any kind in Indiana.

Its location, closer to the main transfer station than the previous site, will add to the efficiency of maintenance and operations procedures, ultimately leading to service improvements; the new location is in a designated ozone action area, which will benefit from reductions to TRANSPO’s carbon footprint and conservation of energy. In addition, the new facility will allow better management of the agency’s fleet and pave the way for the introduction of alternative fuel vehicles beginning in 2011.

“For nearly 125 years, TRANSPO has been an innovator in meeting our community's transportation needs. We look forward to the completion of a nationally significant facility that will help TRANSPO reduce costs, operate with streamlined efficiency, and lessen our impact on the environment,” said South Bend Mayor Stephen J. Luecke. “I especially want to welcome TRANSPO to this place of our industrial heritage and our high-tech future.”

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