MAT Breaks Ground for New Facility

Julie Bommelman, Transit Administrator
City of Fargo

On Sept. 8, the cities of Fargo and Moorhead broke ground for construction of a new maintenance and storage facility for Metro Area Transit (MAT) vehicles. At the ground breaking ceremony, Mayors Bruce Furness (Fargo) and Mark Voxland (Moorhead), and Dave Leftwitch, local government engineer with the N.D. Department of Transportation, spoke about the significance of such a joint venture project and the benefits to the citizens.

Architects for the new facility are EAPC of Fargo; the general contractor is Roers Construction, Fargo. Construction will take an estimated 14 months, with a projected completion date of November 1, 2006.

The new facility will be located in Fargo across the street from the existing bus facility and Fargo Public Works (at the site of the old Consolidated Freight facility). The facility, which will be approximately 50,000 square feet, will hold 37 buses and the Fargo-Moorhead MAT administrative offices. There will also be room for expansion to hold up to 50 buses. Discussions with the Fargo Senior Commission and Clay County Rural Transit about utilizing the new facility are on-going.

Currently, the cities of Fargo and Moorhead have separate facilities for bus storage and maintenance. The new facility will allow the Fargo and Moorhead systems to combine storage and maintenance. Plans call for combining the two systems completely, but jurisdictional and technical issues must be worked out before completely uniting the systems.

The estimated cost for the facility is $7 million. Federal funds will cover 80 percent of the costs. Fargo will pay two-thirds and Moorhead one-third of the remaining costs. Funding was secured over the course of the past few years with the support of Senators and Congressional representatives in both North Dakota and Minnesota.

The N.D. and Minn. Departments of Transportation have been intricately involved in this process and have both strongly supported the efforts to combine operations in one facility. Without the support of both states, the reaching goal of one facility would have been much more challenging.

This represents a joint effort supported by the cities of Fargo and Moorhead, as well as the states of North Dakota and Minnesota. Our aspirations are for a seamless, efficient system for our passengers and long-term efficiencies for the cities.

Elected Officials (left to right): Joan Carlson, Rep. Pomeroy's Office; Mike Williams and Linda Coates, Fargo City Commissioners; Mayor Bruce Furness, Fargo; Mayor Mark Voxland, Moorhead; Pam Gulleson, Senator Dorgan's Office.

Staff (left to right): Jim Gilmour, Julie Bommelman, Pat Zavoral, Harold Pederson - Fargo; Lori Van Beek, Chad Martin - Moorhead.

Events Calendar

• MPTA - 31st Annual Conference, Oct. 24-26, Bloomington, MN
• TRB - 85th Annual Meeting, Jan. 22-26, 2006, Washington, DC
• APTA - Transportation & University Communities Conference, Mar. 18-21, 2006, East Lansing, MI
• TRF - 2006 Annual Forum, Mar. 23-25, 2006, New York, NY
• APTA - 2006 Bus & Paratransit Conference, Apr. 30 - May 1, 2006, Anaheim, CA
• ITS America - 2006 Annual Meeting & Expo, May 7-9, 2006, Philadelphia, PA
• CTAA - EXPO 2006, Jun. 4-9, 2006, Orlando, FL
• SURTC Spring Training, "Finding Local Match" (date to be determined)

Please check www.surtc.org for updates.