Work has officially begun on a $5 million transit facility set to become the future hub of the City of Madera’s public transportation system.
The cold, foggy morning did little to deter the crowd of local officials, community members, and staff that gathered at the groundbreaking ceremony hosted inside of the Freedom Industrial Park Thursday morning.
The new transit facility, located just west of Madera South High School, on the corner of Pine & Pecan, will provide adequate space for growing transit operations and allow for improved service delivery throughout the city. The facility’s cost, from design to end of construction is projected to be just above $5M, secured with funding from the Public Transportation Modernization, Improvement, and Service Enhancement Account Program and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) (State and Federal funds).
“This new transit facility will greatly increase the efficiency and the capacity of Madera’s public transit system,” said Mayor Andy Medellin. “Take a look around,” he continued. “Ten to twenty years from now Freedom Industrial Park is going to look totally different than what you see here today.”
Grants Administrator Ivette Iraheta and Community Development Director Dave Merchen thanked the City Council for their support and praised the work of city staff and BMY Construction, who were awarded the bid to build the project. “I’m thrilled to be at this point of construction,” said Iraheta. “We have outgrown our old facility, our new facility will triple the size for transit.”
“The site that we’re looking at today was actually gifted to the City by SPAN Construction,” said Merchen. “We could not have been here, and we certainly would not have been able to do this project this way without that partnership.” Those in attendance included members of the Madera City Council, Santos Garcia, Donald Holley, Jose Rodriguez, Derek Robinson, and Madera County Supervisors Max Rodriguez.
