The new Big Blue Bus eco-facility with its 66,000 square feet of workspace area increases the Big Blue Buses’ capacity to handle maintenance and repair buses, provide extensive service to 60-foot articulated buses as well as the Santa Monica Fire Department vehicles. Along with its large service capacity, the new facility also includes several eco-friendly components like photovoltaic panels, reflective concrete paving and urban runoff system among others – taking Santa Monica city a step further in achieving its twin goal of serving its community and environment.

In a Q&A with Voice of Santa Monica’s Natasha Garyali, Johnny Nettles, Project Manager of the new Big Blue Bus eco-friendly maintenance facility talks about his experiences working on the project.

Johnny Nettles, Project Manager, Big Blue Bus feels that the new maintenance facility facilitates Big Blue Bus mission of serving its community better

Voice of Santa Monica: What was your experience working on this project?
Johnny Nettles: In the beginning it was tough experience with all the delays, but once we started it was exuberant. Our campus housed several buildings, some for the big blue bus, some we were sharing with some community groups, so in order to have the space needed to accommodate this new facility, we actually had to demolish some of our own offices, as well as help others relocate. In the end it cleared up around 25000sq.feet of space and that’s how we were able to build this new facility.

The nine years was a lot of struggle, the plan changed a couple of time. But at the end we were able to achieve a whole lot of things like recycled water bus wash, LNG, CNG, fuel island which provides cleaner burning fuels for our fleet now. The new building has increased our capacity to service our existing and new buses in the future. And shortly we will have a better configured bus yard, for actually storing these vehicles that we have had in the past.

Voice of Santa Monica: What prompted the big blue bus to renovate the old facility?
Johnny Nettles: The building was 47 years old, and we did have earthquake damage from Northridge earthquake and with the state of the art vehicles that we have, it was time to upgrade. The old facility neither had the technology nor the space to accommodate the type of vehicles that were now operating and frankly it’s a miracle that the maintenance workers were able to keep as many of our vehicles operational. What compelled us to build the new facility, apart from making their (maintenance workers) job a lot easier is, was that it allowed us to bring in vehicles like articulate and hybrid vehicles to better serve our riders.

Voice of Santa Monica: What are the new eco-friendly features that the new facility contains?
Johnny Nettles: In keeping with the Big Blue Bus and city’s commitment to a sustainable environment, the facility has included many eco-friendly and energy efficient features such as:
* 600 80-kilowatt photovoltaic panels on the roof to help reduce energy costs by up to 15% a year.
* Highly reflective concrete paving in the bus yard which helps in keeping the facility`s microclimate cooler.
* An urban runoff system to filter storm water. 30 feet filter. This ensures that there is nothing going out of the building and everything is caught and filtered.
* Reclaimed water for landscape irrigation.
* Recycled content in major constructions materials, including concrete, structural steel, carpeting, gypsum board, finishes and insulation.
* Energy efficient measures, including minimum energy water heaters and lighting.
The workspace is designed to utilize natural ventilation so less air conditioning is required. I can testify to that, it is much cooler than the building. It feels the air-conditioning is on, even when it is not.

Voice of Santa Monica: What was the cost of the entire project?
Johnny Nettles: The cost of the new phase including the demolition phase is about 60-66 million. The overall cost will be approximately 90 million. This was the money that was saved by the Big Blue Bus over a period of 10 years. It was all dedicated public transit funds that came from either prop A or gas tax. Fortunately all the avenues ran together between funding the opportunity and the price of construction to create this facility that we see here today.

Voice of Santa Monica: How will the Santa Monica community benefit from this new facility?
Johnny Nettles: The new facility has increased our capability to provide more vehicles like hybrid buses, gas and electric buses. They are much cleaner buses and very quiet. We are very excited about bringing them in the city as they make less noise and is something residents have wanted for a long time.