Albany Transportation Center construction on schedule for early 2023 opening

ALBANY — The Albany Transportation Center under construction at East Oglethorpe Boulevard and South Jackson Street will offer riders more than a place to stay out of the rain and switch buses.

The center, scheduled to open next year, also will provide some modern features such as a board giving estimated arrival and departure times of buses both inside and on the bus ramp.

“We will have, hopefully, a state-of-the-art facility,” Albany Transportation Director David Hamilton said. “We’ll have a computer room, a computer lab for citizens to use with several computer stations. We’ll have a room where you can have community meetings.”

Wi-fi, cellphone-charging stations and stations to charge electric vehicles are among other amenities.

“There will be a plaza on the Jackson Street side in honor of Ola Mae Quartimon,” Hamilton said, referring to the rider who was arrested after refusing to move to the back of a bus in 1962, two years before the more famous incident in Montgomery, Ala., involving Rosa Parks.

The project is expected to cost $11.5 million, with the city’s share, including $750,000 to acquire the property, at $5.9 million. State and federal transportation grants make up the balance of funding.

In addition to providing a new and improved facility, the new transportation center will address another concern.

“The main thing this facility will do is improve things from a safety standpoint,” Hamilton said. “Our buses will no longer have to pull in and back out. They can enter and exit. That clears up that safety issue.”

Currently, a city-owned building behind the Albany Civic Center is being used as the main bus station. That location offers challenges of insufficient covering for riders in inclement weather.

While some materials, such as steel, are on back order, city officials say they expect the project will be completed on time, and currently construction is on schedule.

“We’re still looking to be on schedule for the facility to be completed by late October, early November (of) 2022,” Hamilton said. “The plan is for us to be moved in and operational by January of 2023.

“We’re hoping it will spur some other economic development around it to make it an improved transportation center development.”

Staff Photo: Alan MauldinAlanMauldin[email protected]
Staff Photo: Alan MauldnAlanMauldin[email protected]