T
he Kanawha Valley Regional Transportation Authority (KRT) currently has thousands of dollars worth of garage maintenance projects -- some considered emergencies – pending, board members were told during their Jan. 16 regularly scheduled meeting.
On Thursday, Travis Garrett, KRT’s Managing Director of Infrastructure, gauged the scope of ongoing issues.
“We've had a pretty busy couple of months in the garage,” Garrett told the panelists.
For starters, he said, a section of the roof at the agency’s Stockton Street shop needs replacing.
“This portion of our roof is right over our work area in the garage,” Garrett said. “This whole roof has deteriorated. It's beyond its useful life.”
The replacement will cost $8,500, he noted, and should be scheduled within the next month.
Then, there’s the “unfortunate” issue with the garage door.
“If you noticed, one of our doors out here was open,” Garrett said.
He showed board members a photograph of a mangled door being held up by a scissor lift.
“Whenever [the garage door] came down, it wound itself up inside of the track and completely destroyed the motor and cut the door curtain,” Garrett said.
The accident left a corpse of shredded vinyl and sharp metal where the door once stood.
“It's unsafe really,” Garrett noted. “We're taking every precaution that we possibly can to rope off that area so no one gets injured or anything like that happens, but it does increase our risk.”
Since the broken door poses a safety risk, the damage is considered an emergency. The replacement will cost an estimated $26,000, Garrett said, and may take a month to complete.
There’s also an issue with the back flow valve system within the garage’s wash bay, which “is pretty much deteriorated,” Garrett said.
“We have it temporarily fixed,” he said. “But that will run us around $20,000 to $25,000 to get that whole system replaced. And that is a requirement.”
Those are just a few of the pending projects, Garrett notes.
Some maintenance issues, like the garage door, may be covered through external grant funding.
“The FTA [Federal Transit Administration] does have options for emergencies like the garage door,” Garrett said.
But other pending projects may come directly from KRT’s already tight budget.
“Unfortunately, the [broken] back flow valves wouldn't be an emergency because it's an old system, and old systems will fail,” Garrett said.
Previous attempts at securing federal funding through the FTA to replace the aging garage infrastructure have not materialized. That leaves some KRT officials, like Executive Director Sean Hill, worried.
“We're going to continue to see things fail,” Hill said. “And that's very frustrating.”
Hill said that KRT persists in finding funds to stave off emergencies, but he’s worried about the long-term ramifications -- not to mention the potential price -- if needed upgrades continue to be postponed.
“I'm nervous we're going to continue to see things fail over there [in the garage] because they're so old,” Hill said. “And maybe eventually we'll have band-aided together a newer facility, but I hope it won't cost us more money in the long run.”
Other businesses items
Also on Thursday, KRT board members:
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Welcomed the agency's new Director of Communications Briana Warner, who formerly served in that capacity for Kanawha County Schools;
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Heard updated usage stats on KRT’s service offerings, including the new KRTplus on-demand transportation service; and
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Approved the agency’s annual Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan, among other agenda items.
KRT board members will hold their next regular meeting at 8:45 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 20 at their Fourth Avenue headquarters.
