Courtesy of ARTICinfo.com
Anaheim City Council approved a $127 million contract to build a transportation hub in the area of southeast Anaheim on Katella Avenue and South Douglass Road.
The motion for the contract was approved Aug. 28, and was unanimous with Mayor Tom Tait abstaining from the vote due to his contacts with the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center (ARTIC).
According to the official website, the hub is to be built by Clark Construction Group and is meant to usher in the future of transportation for commuters and tourists while also creating jobs to stimulate the local economy as well as alleviate traffic on the 57 Freeway.
City Council member Lori Galloway voted in favor of the contract and has supported the ARTIC project on the grounds that ARTIC has been a plan for Anaheim for 10 years. Before the vote was finalized, Galloway said that ARTIC would be an advantage for commuters and tourists.
“This is a dynamic, dynamic development that we’ve been working over 10 years for,” said Galloway. “It is of regional importance, not just for the city of Anaheim but to anyone who travels to and through. It will connect — it will provide deeper, stronger connectivity to and from this region.”
An estimated 5,000 individuals will be employed for the initial construction of the project. There will be potential for more jobs once the ARTIC center is completed.
City council member Gail E. Eastman said the amount of jobs that would be created would be a major benefit to local workers who have supported the ARTIC project since its inception.
“This is a project that (will) break ground at a really critical time when a lot of people are out of work,” Eastman said. “This will provide some with jobs to some of our trades-people who have spoken before (to the city council) multiple times and supported this project.”
Once completed, the center is expected to serve an estimated 10,330 people daily with Metrolink, OCTA and local buses, taxis and several other alternative transit modes.
The ARTIC is meant to benefit Anaheim by supporting the growth of tourism as well as creating a fast and efficient modes of transportation for local and non local commuters.
“It’s designed as a regional transportation hub,” said Anaheim public information officer Ruth Ruiz. “So you’ll get the number of commuters that would use the station, that currently use public transportation, that will be able to utilize the station ARTIC once it is built and the numbers are quite large. It shows that there’s a need for a transportation station such as ARTIC,” she said.
The center is also meant to offer Anaheim citizens a reliable mode of transportation to lessen the amount of cars on the road.
“(ARTIC is) working toward sustainability and getting vehicles off the road,” said Anaheim public works director Natalie Meeks. “So, to the extent that this project can increase transit ridership and take those vehicles off the road and have a positive impact on our air quality.”
The design plans for ARTIC have also been certified as LEED Platinum by the U.S. Green Building Council, an example of the highest form of environmentally safe structures.
“To that end, transit is a sustainable effort the building is designed to be LEED Platinum certified, that’s the highest level of sustainability for the building itself,” Meeks said.
LEED Platinum objectives include lowering carbon dioxide emissions and greenhouse gases.
ARTICinfo.com outlines the numerous goals such as using reclaimed water systems and drought-tolerant materials and reducing energy consumption up to 50 percent by building with new and innovative materials.
The ARTIC station will have a groundbreaking this September and is expected to open sometime in 2014.