If the wheels on the bus are to continue to go ‘round and ‘round St. Albert, the city must spend millions on upgrades to the transit centre.
Ligget Place transit centre needs $10.8-million to see the garage retrofitted and expanded and the project was approved as part of the 2025 budget. City council on Tuesday voted on the associated $13.5-million borrowing bylaw through first reading.
The annual tax impact for debt servicing is expected to be $546,836 in 2026, and $384,170 in 2027, according to the city. The borrowing bylaw includes a 25 per cent contingency.
The project is subject to votes by city council on second and third readings following a legislated cooldown period after first reading. The work, which is required because the garage has been at capacity since 2015, would begin this year and finish in 2027.
The renewed structure would feature another maintenance bay, more storage, and an expansion to the 12-lane parking garage, enough space for more buses that will be needed as the city grows.
St. Albert transit service hours and the attending maintenance have been on the rise leading to an all-time high of 2.77 million kilometres driven in 2024, according to a report co-authored by the departments of finance and public operations.
It says finding space for storage and to fix vehicles is already a challenge, particularly because clean diesel and electric buses acquired after 2013 are literally higher maintenance than their dinosaur-incinerating predecessors.
The garage is full, so some people-movers have to be stored outside. That’s a problem for cold-sensitive buses and equipment such as Smart Bus, Smart Fare, On-Demand and Handibus tablets.
“Moving buses multiple times throughout the day to accommodate service and maintenance has substantially increased Fleet’s operational burden,” the report reads.
Council also on consent approved a request from city leadership to exempt the mostly non-occupied structure from St. Albert’s sustainable buildings policy.
Without the exemption, the building would have to be certified through a third party such as LEEDS on its environmental footprint. A city document warns that may have driven the cost of the retrofit and expansion up by as much as 50 per cent.
The building footprint of the existing facility is 6,993 meters squared of which 1,086 meters squared is office space while the remaining 5,907 meters squared is the garage and fleet maintenance area. The proposed expansion of the facility will add 1,773 meters squared to the garage and fleet maintenance area, bringing the new total building footprint to 8,767 meters squared, according to another city report, which also notes St. Albert has taken sustainability into consideration already at the garage:
- Pumps were selected to maximize energy efficiency,
- The selection of HVAC equipment considered energy efficiency,
- All electrical fixtures will be LED, and
- The hot water will be supplied using an energy efficient water heater.
If city council were to forgo the Ligget Place garage expansion, administration would recommend adding a new transit garage to the 10- or 15-year capital plan at an estimated cost of $150 million.
