As Washington's Kitsap County continues to grow, the local transit authority is developing a $12.7-million, 9.73-acre, environmentally friendly North Base and North Viking Park & Ride Project to ease congestion on the road to the ferry terminal for people traveling to downtown Seattle.

"It was time to build a larger park & ride and consolidate our services," says Steffani Lillie, Director of Service & Capital Development for Kitsap Transit in Bremerton, Washington.

The Kitsap Transit North Base project spans three city blocks north of SR 305 between SR 3 and Bond Road in the City of Poulsbo, Lillie explains. This sustainable transit project will feature a new 265-stall park and ride and bus maintenance yard.

Kitsap Transit currently manages a park and ride lot system with more then 2,500 spaces, including a north-area rental lot, which operates at capacity. The new facility, on the site of a current bus operations base near the interstate, will replace the rented church parking lot.  

"By combining the location of the bus base and the park and ride transfer center, it allows our buses to leave the yard and go directly into service, saving operational dollars," Lillie explains.

Kitsap Transit makes 10 transit runs daily, each with about four to five buses carrying people to the ferry terminal. The buses operate at capacity. The authority plans to transition to double-decker buses to increase capacity on the route.

The long-range plan for the area around the park and ride includes many new neighborhoods, further increasing demand for transit services. Kitsap Transit began planning for the new park and ride seven years ago, gathering funding and permits. Several grants helped provide funding for the project. Perteet of Seattle designed the facility.

Work Begins

Civil contractor Ceccanti of Tacoma, Washington, received the contract in February. The scope of work includes clearing and grubbing; grading; pulverizing asphalt; pouring concrete pavement, hot-mix asphalt and cement concrete pavement; pouring sidewalks, curbs and curb ramps; installing a stormwater drainage and treatment system and erosion control measures; and constructing bus shelters and buildings for bus washing, fueling and oil changes.

The project has begun with a considerable amount of dirt movement. Ceccanti is moving 30,000 cubic yards from the north portion of the site to the south portion of the site, which required fill. Water trucks spray to keep the dust down.

"We took material from the bus parking lot to the park and ride parking lot," says Jack Campbell, Superintendent for Ceccanti.

Ceccanti purchased two new off-road Volvo trucks from Clyde/West in Seattle to assist with the project. Campbell has found them helpful with the massive dirt moving.

"We use Volvo trucks because they are a good work-horse, off-road vehicle. I wouldn't want anything else on our jobsite," said Tom Cumpston, a Truck Operator for Ceccanti working on the park and ride project.

Steve Lessard, a Salesman for Clyde/West, a full service dealer, has sold Ceccanti numerous Volvo trucks over the years, starting in 2003. The new 40-ton articulated haulers, designed for use in difficult operation conditions, are based on a tractor with a front axle and a trailer coupled to it through a hitch with an articulation joint.

A 20-foot-wide ravine ran through the length of the southern parcel. By making it shallower, Kitsap Transit was able to convert it into a infiltration pond.

The three structures under construction include a concrete and steel-framed bus waiting canopy; a concrete masonry unit and steel-framed Bus Wash Building; and a concrete masonry unit Fueling Building. These three buildings will be assembled with materials that utilize recycled material and are designed with large windows to provide daylight into the buildings.

 The fueling building is large enough for two buses to fuel simultaneously. The bus wash  has two stations, one for the sides of the bus and one for the underside of the bus. The bus areas will be paved with 13,000 cubic yards of heavy-impact, 10-inch thick concrete.

The project is scheduled for completion summer 2016.

A "˜Green' Facility

In keeping with Kitsap Transit's commitment to providing sustainable, green travel options, the authority planned a sustainable, environmentally friendly, low-impact facility.

"Stormwater is the big issue in the Pacific Northwest, and that's what we focused on," said Erik Emerson, Project Manager and Lead Engineer at Perteet.  

Large areas of the park and ride have plantings and shallow stormwater retrieval. The parking lot and pedestrian paths will be paved with pervious asphalt. Under the pavement, Ceccanti is installing washed aggregate and structural-amended soil, which will filter out sediment and other pollutants before the water flows into collection pipes.

"We're taking native material and mixing it with a Sphagnum peat moss," Campbell explains. "There are collection pipes that send the water into retention ponds, where we have more amended soil to filter out anything that's left. They are trying to keep all of the water on site."

Additionally seven Filterra cells in the bus area filter the stormwater runoff. The water flows to retention ponds supported by structural amended soil.

"The seven Filterra cells on the bus lot look more or less like tree planters you might find on any other project, but here they serve a greater purpose," Lillie explains. "The soil these trees are planted in traps pollutants, releasing water free from contaminants into adjacent bioretention cells. To the untrained eye, bioretention cells look like sunken gardens or shallow ponds, depending on how recently it has rained."

The four bioretention cells on the north site further treat stormwater runoff, and allow the slow infiltration of stormwater runoff from the parking back into the natural soil.  

The wash building features a fully contained water-recycling system. The light fixtures use LED bulbs. TCF Architecture of Tacoma designed the buildings and bus platform. 

"By implementing pervious [pavement], Filterra cells and rain gardens, Kitsap Transit minimized the impact of the project on the natural movement of water through the surrounding ecosystem," Lille says. "The result is a site that both handles runoff efficiently and is aesthetically appealing."