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Lane Transit District has received a multimillion-dollar boost from the state to fund its planned Santa Clara “park-and-ride” bus station. The transit district this month was awarded a $3 million Oregon Department of Transportation grant, as it moves closer to construction on a five-bay bus station at River Road and Hunsaker Lane, with a 66-space parking lot for travelers to park before hopping on an LTD bus. The grant will cover nearly 40 percent of the park-and-ride station’s $8.1 million projected cost. The district hopes to start construction in summer or fall 2017, with the station completed by the end of 2018, LTD spokesman Edward McGlone said. LTD last year said the district hoped to start building the station as soon as this fall, but that timeline depended on securing grant money and negotiating a sale of its existing park-and-ride station a half-mile south of the Santa Clara site, at Randy Papé Beltline and River Road. LTD wants to move the station farther north as traffic congestion grows near the Beltline interchange, and ODOT discusses long-term plans to improve traffic flow there. Any change would likely include ODOT expanding its property footprint in the area. “It makes sense” to move the station farther north, McGlone said. “And in terms of what’s around the new station, within a half-mile you have 3,700 residents and 1,700 jobs. That’s a key thing.” LTD bought the eight-acre property — the former Santa Clara Elementary School site — for $3.3 million last year. LTD plans to fund the rest of the project through its general fund and the sale of the Beltline and River Road property. McGlone said the district has received “a lot of interest” from potential buyers, and hopes to close a deal around the time construction starts. The Santa Clara site will eventually include the park-and-ride station. LTD is seeking to sell roughly two-thirds of the property to entities that would put commercial and residential development there. The $3 million grant comes from a $45 million pool of funds ODOT awarded this month to cities, counties and transit agencies, through the ConnectOregon program. The grants, created by the Oregon Legislature in 2005, fund up to 70 percent of a qualifying city or public entity’s transportation project. The state received 75 grant requests this year, totaling $91.2 million. A total of 39 projects — just over half — received grant money. Four Lane County entities did not receive grant money: Northwest Container Services applied for $1.45 million to modify rail cars at the Springfield division of Greenbrier Rail Services; Eugene requested $554,000 for Eugene Airport runway improvements and $112,00 for bicycle parking stations; and Florence sought $490,000 for a Siuslaw River recreational trail. |
