Mountain bus riders will endure another winter without an indoor transportation center to serve them when cold and snowy weather disrupts their commute.

Mountain Line’s new Downtown Connection Center is scheduled to open in May ahead of the hot summer weather and monsoon. The $29.5 million facility will be home to Mountain Line passengers, drivers, dispatchers, operations staff and administrative staff.

The building is taking shape at the northeast corner of Milton Road and Phoenix Avenue, adjacent to the BNSF railroad bridge over Milton.

The center will provide accessible restrooms and customer service for passengers, space for dispatchers, and a break room for Mountain Line drivers.

Other facilities will include conference rooms for board meetings and community gatherings, a police substation and space for social service agencies, said Jackie Leonards, Mountain Line’s deputy general manager.

All are housed in a two-story, 20,938-square-foot building designed to meet Coconino County sustainable building codes. The eco-friendly design by HDR Inc. is an all-electric building with rooftop solar panels, natural light from solar tubes, and underfloor heating and cooling.

Another important feature is the transit center’s mass timber construction method. The structure uses cross-laminated timber and was designed in a warehouse to fit together like giant Lincoln logs.

This is only the second building in Arizona to use mass timber rather than the more common concrete and steel architectural framework.

This approach uses pieces of wood from smaller diameter trees glued together in multiple layers. These sections are combined to create a large beam designed to fit seamlessly with a 1/16th inch tolerance.

Mortensen, based in Minneapolis with offices in Phoenix, broke ground on its first mass timber building in 2022. It’s a 184,000 square foot office building in Tempe called Beam on Farmer. According to Mortenson, the high-rise structure has a 10% lower carbon footprint than a comparable concrete building.

Flagstaff-based Roven Contracting, which is building the transportation center, toured Mortenson’s building to learn how best to build with cross-laminated timber.

Portland, Ore.-based TimberLab provided the mass timber material for the transit center using Douglas fir, said Sam Dicke, the company’s customer development manager.

An advantage of mass timber construction is that fewer workers are needed to assemble columns and beams, which can shorten construction schedules by about 20 percent, he said.

“Additionally, there are significant aesthetic benefits to constructing buildings using large amounts of wood. ”

““Flagstaff is in the heart of northern Arizona’s timber region,” Dicke said. The bulk timber transportation center is “a really great story that shows the connection to the surrounding nature. It has created a really beautiful aesthetic. It’s a modern interpretation of the way we used to build.” , which shows that we can build in a more sustainable way, which is really great.”

Mountain Line’s Downtown Connection Center is funded by a $21 million federal grant, $6 million from the state of Arizona, and $2.5 million in local funds. The city of Flagstaff donated three acres of construction land valued at $8.46 million, said Jackie Leonards, deputy bus route manager.

The total investment is $38 million. This includes an $8.46 million in-kind donation of land by the city.

Loven Contracting has set a practical completion date for the transit center as April 7, with Mountain Line expected to move into the building in May, said Kevin Bond, senior project manager.

This completes Phase 1 of the Downtown Connection Center. Phase 2 will include the redesign of the surface parking lot to accommodate the safe movement of buses and the construction of bus bays with charging facilities.

Leonards said the second phase is contingent on the completion of flood control work on the Rio de Flag River property.

Mountain Line has 27 hybrid electric buses and two fully electric models, with four more fully electric models on order.

Mountain Line is a local transportation agency that operates nine bus routes, paratransit service, vanpools, and seasonal Mountain Express service to the Arizona Snowbowl. FBN

Peter Corbett, FBN

Photo provided by: This rendering shows what the Downtown Connection Center will look like when completed. It is scheduled to open in May.