New bus shelters coming up

(8/16/2006) A $1.5 million plan to replace six bus shelters with new modular units that will be heated and have greater seating capacity has gone out to bid.

Construction is expected to start this fall and the shelters should be installed and operable by winter or early spring.

City Engineer Dick Miller is working on the project in partnership with David Thompson Architects, the Greater New Haven Transit District and Robert Melvin with the city Office of Economic Development. The funding for the project will come from the federal government via the transit authority and will focus on replacement shelters at key transfer bus stops. Locations are:

On the Green (Chapel Street and Elm Street)

At 55 Church Street

On Temple Street at the Kelly House– this shelter fits into an embankment that defines the plaza area of the site

On Chapel, near Orange Street, where the “Art Park” is located

Four of the shelters, at 55 Church, the Kelly House, and at the Art Park location, will have “green” roofs planted with a type of grass that requires little maintenance but provides insulation.

“Our goal is to provide shelters that are heated in the winter, that provide protection from the weather elements, that have seating but that discourage vagrancy,” Miller said. “We are aiming for environmentally pleasing shelters that, in the future, will expand on a model that could be used in other areas of the city.”