LOCAL

COTA to spend another $10.5 million on engineering for West Broad bus rapid transit line

The Columbus Dispatch

A COTA bus awaits the arrival of Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, to take a tour July 7, 2022 of the route on West Broad Street that will eventually be part of the LinkUS bus rapid transit corridor.

The Central Ohio Transit Authority will be spending another $10.5 million on engineering work toward a bus rapid transit line along nine miles of West Broad Street west of Downtown.

The COTA board of trustees on Wednesday approved the contract with AECOM, a Dallas-based company with Columbus offices, for this next phase of the work. A third phase will be done next year.

Construction on the rapid transit line is expected to perhaps finally begin as early as 2025, said Andrew Biesterveld, COTA's chief engineer and mechanical officer.

"We're near 30% design done, Biesterveld told The Dispatch.

The new work will include more surveying, property appraisal and acquisition assistance for right-of-way, and public engagement.

The bus rapid-transit line would be the first as part of the LinkUS initiative to build lines in several corridors in Franklin County, including along East Main Street east of Downtown, and a Northwest Corridor route along Olentangy River Road and ultimately to Dublin.

The COTA board approved $10.5 million for engineering work for a bus rapid transit line along West Broad Street.

Bus rapid transit systems uses buses that are longer than traditional buses, with its own dedicated lanes so they are able to movw faster through traffic. Cities such as Cleveland and Minneapolis have created such lines, in part because they are less expensive to build and maintain than rail.

A 2022 Ohio State University study showed that bus rapid transit lines helped improve values of nearby multi-family properties, including Cleveland.

Biesterveld said the East Main rapid transit portion could begin seven months after work begins on the West Broad stretch.

At question, though, remains funding. In the summer of 2022, COTA officials decided not to place a 0.5% sales tax hike on the November 2022 ballot to raise $6 billion for bus rapid transit because of what one called "economic challenges" in the region. There are no plans yet to put it on a ballot.

COTA began applying for $300 million in grants in 2022 from the U.S. Department of Transportation to help fund both the West Broad and East Main proposed corridors.

At that time, according to Kim Sharp, COTA's senior director of development, the projected build out for each in 2022 dollars was $251 million for West Broad Street and $265 million for East Main Street. Now, the cost, in projected 2027 dollars, is estimated to be $334 million for West Broad Street and $329 million for East Main Street, according to COTA spokesman Jeff Pullin.

The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission is currently seeking public comment through Feb. 8 on 23 proposed projects in central Ohio that it proposes to direct $148 million in federal funds toward, including $13.1 million for construction of the West Broad Street BRT (bus rapid transit) corridor.

In other news, COTA this week finally restored COTA's website and its real-time tracking for buses for riders using either the Transit app or Google maps. The tracking service had been down since mid-December after COTA officials took all of its IT systems offline following a computer hack.

COTA spokesman Jeff Pullin said the next step is to restore Wi-Fi service on buses.

During the meeting, a group of four from Sunrise Movement Columbus, a youth-led effort to stop climate change, asked the board to implement a free-fare system for COTA, an idea the COTA board has no plans to implement.

Joseph Glandorf, one of the members from Marble Cliff, asked COTA to begin a one-free-weekday-a-week pilot program for two months.

"Columbus citizens deserve free public transit," he said.

Local developer and former COTA board member Bob Weiler has pushed free transit here for years.

But COTA revenue from fares is expected to be $12.8 million in 2023, just 6% of the $206 million in revenue COTA officials estimate to receive this year. Almost three-quarters of COTA's revenues — an estimated $151.7 million in 2023 — comes from COTA's 0.5% sales tax.

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority in Washington, D.C. plans to have fare-free buses beginning July 1. The transit system in Kansas City, Missouri, began its ZeroFare program in 2020.

mferench@dispatch.com

@MarkFerenchik