LINK Construction Project Awarded

Phoenix, AZ (Nov. 21, 2008)
Two contractors received the official nod from the Valley Metro Board of Directors Thursday to proceed with a new bus project that includes the construction of bus stations and a transit center in Mesa. A first for Valley Metro Regional Public Transportation Authority (RPTA), the construction project will focus on facilities and street improvements for a new bus service that begins with the grand opening of METRO light rail on December 27, 2008.

“This is a very exciting and historic day for Valley Metro as we embark on the very first construction project in the agency’s 23-year history,” said David A. Boggs, Valley Metro RPTA executive director. “By doing so, we are building the transit plan that the voters approved in 2004.”

The new bus service, called Valley Metro LINK, travels a 12-mile corridor with stops every half-mile in downtown Mesa and every mile outside of downtown, is the first of five routes in the Valley to receive the new, state-of-the-art transit service. LINK, which will operate in new 63-foot environmentally-friendly buses , extends the METRO light rail service from the Sycamore Transit Center to Superstition Springs Mall in Mesa. The bus stations and street improvements are designed to accommodate the new LINK vehicles.

Award of the contracts are as follows:
SDB Contractors, awarded construction of 26 bus stations and improvements along Main Street and Power Road for $ 5,158,294
Ry-Tan Contractors, awarded construction at Superstition Springs Transit Center for bus parking, expanded auto parking and a driver comfort station for $ 2,275,000
The project bids resulted in a 10 percent savings to the overall project budget. Funding for these construction activities are received fully through the Proposition 400 Regional Transportation Plan’s half-cent countywide sales tax that provides for transportation and transit improvements in Maricopa County.  According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, for every $1 billion of federal spending on highway construction nationwide, 47,500 jobs are generated. Using that formula, there could be as many as 351 jobs generated annually from the Valley Metro construction projects awarded today.