Hi, I'm Paul Comfort and this is Transit Unplugged, the world's

leading podcast diving into all things public transportation.

We are the location for transit nerds to find out what's happening, the

latest and greatest in the industry.

And man, have we got a great show for you today.

Get this, the Miami Dade County Department of Transportation and Public Works has

broken ground and begun construction on their state of the art transit operations

center that will charge, service, operate, and maintain and house its new sustainable

fleet of battery electric buses.

This facility is the first of its kind in the U.

S.

And is the first all electric facility and the first to accommodate

up to 100 articulated, zero emission, battery electric buses.

And as our guest for today's show, excited to have my good friend Eulois

Cleckley who is Director and CEO of the Miami Dade County Department

of Transportation and Public Works.

And joining him is the fellow who is in charge of overseeing the

construction, Angel Chaverria who is Senior Vice President and Alternative

Delivery Project Director at WSP.

this is a great, innovative program they've got going on down there, and Get

this, they're going to use this garage to help facilitate their brand new 20

mile BRT line with all electric vehicles.

It's going to have 14 iconic stations that are already under construction and this is

I mean, like I tell Eulois on this show, I mean, you guys got it all going on.

It's the center of gravity for all things cool and new, I think, is coming

to Miami and this is no exception.

Dive in with me now as we talk to Eulois and Angel, unpacking this

great new project coming to Miami.

Eulois, thanks for being on the show again.

Yes, Paul.

It's always great to be here, so I appreciate it.

Absolutely.

And we've also got, with us on the show today, Angel Chaviera.

Who is, it was SVP with, WSP.

Good, a lot of initials.

Angel, thanks for being with us today, man.

You're welcome, glad to be here.

Yeah, man, great to have you here.

in addition to being Senior Vice President of WSP, you're also the Alternative

Delivery Project Director, which is what we're going to talk about today.

A great new project for an alternative source of energy, which a lot of

transit agencies are looking at, which is battery electric buses.

The other big ones on the scene right now, obviously, are hydrogen power, and

then some people are still looking at CNG as all kind of lower and no emissions.

Eulois, what's the game plan there in Miami?

What, what brought you all to this?

You are, you are building, I think, the first and largest of its

kind battery electric bus garage.

100 60 foot articulated buses, man.

That's massive.

Yeah, it is.

And, we are excited about this opportunity for building out what we call the

nation's, if not the world's largest, all, battery electric bus, innovative

transportation operations center.

and we affectionately named this project the South Dade Transit Operations Center.

Okay.

and that's, that was done purposefully because it's more

than just a place to store buses.

we are.

Embarking on essentially a revolution in transportation and mobility here in

South Dade, one from a, energy standpoint, with respect to ensuring that we're

meeting the goals that's been set by our current administration and our Board

of County Commissioners to electrify our fleet, where right now we, plan

to have, upwards to 10 percent of our fleet, between 10 and 20 percent of our

fleet to be all electric, buses, and, the second piece of that is that we are

expanding, rapid transit options for those that live here in the county, and,

and this project was critical on both of those fronts, because we are building

the longest all battery electric BRT bus rapid transit system in the world.

It's 20 miles along our existing, transit way that will connect, the furthest

municipality called Florida City to eventually downtown, Miami and, provide

great, great service and connections there from a mass transit standpoint.

So in order for us to be able to fulfill, those two, high level, initiatives.

We needed to have a new facility and that's what this facility will provide.

The South Dade Transit Operations Center will be one that will be innovative, state

of the art, and will provide a fantastic facility for not only our buses to be

charged in an efficient manner, but also for all of our employees to enjoy as they

provide great service for the county.

Very, very, great description of it.

So on, on Tuesday, June 25th, the Miami Dade County Mayor, Daniela Levine

Cava, and Miami Dade County Commission Chairman, Oliver Gilbert, along with

you, I imagine, Eulois, a bunch of other people, broke ground on this project, huh?

We did, we got a little bit dirty because actually, there was active

construction going on that day, so it was great to see our contractors

really hit the ground running.

As soon as we got approval from our board, we issued a notice to proceed very

quickly and the team has done a great job.

and this was, the entire process, was extremely innovative from how

we essentially needed to pivot.

to make sure that we're delivering this project in accordance with the

schedule that we were laying out.

So we needed to be very aggressive and accelerate a lot of phases of the project.

And, and, very proud of, of our ability to be able to, deliver

on this most important project.

It wasn't without, gnashing of teeth, everything from

finding the actual location.

we had to work with the, District Commissioner, Commissioner Keoni McGee,

to, actually use 20, of a 47 acre property that Miami Dade County owned, which was

actually a surplus property right near the Air Force Base there in Homestead.

And we were able to leverage that property basically at a nominal

cost for the county to build this facility and at the same time actually

satisfy a community need to provide.

an, an entertainment district, for this, this area within the county.

And so, we were able to, get to a point where we, used 20 acres of this

particular site for our purposes and the other, 27 acres are going to be used for

entertainment district in the future.

So, it's, it's ultimately going to be a, a win win for the community, for our

service, and, and we're looking forward to, to delivering this project on time

and on budget in the next year and a half.

Miami really is, Eulois kind of, you and I have had this conversation

before, but, to me, it's the new center of gravity, for kind of

what's exciting happening in America.

it's, you know, New York City's always been considered, you know, a hub, and L.

A.

and Chicago, the big cities, but, Tech and all the excitement, the

sports teams, the great weather, I mean Miami's got it all going on.

It's really, to your point, the epicenter, I think, of what not only would be the U.

S.,

but eventually probably the world, right?

Everybody kind of points to Miami as what's going on new, what's fresh

and innovative, and And I think there's a, there's a culture and

energy here that people appreciate.

that's why we continue to see more people moving, to, to South Florida.

and, and of course with that, it's our job on, the public sector side, and especially

those of us who are in infrastructure and transportation to make sure that we

are supporting all the people that are moving here, from a mobility standpoint.

And, always looking at ways to be more efficient and provide

better service moving forward.

And so, this project really exemplifies that, where we're trying to be future

ready, as our mayor says, for that type of growth and to be able to support,

really more efficient, ways for people to be able to get around, at the same

time, while people move down here, the cost of living has skyrocketed.

And so that merger between, access, good solid, reliable transportation at

a good cost will allow people to stay here, within the county and allow, a

good solid way for the employee base to continue to grow moving forward.

To pay for this 245 million project, the agency was able to tap into the People's

Transportation Plan, or PTP, which is a half penny surtax that started in

2002 exactly for projects like this, making sure South Florida's mass transit

could expand as the population grew.

Eulois continued to say that this project's goal is to serve the fastest

growing part of the county now and into the future, while also making sure

everything they do is done sustainably.

we wanted this project to ensure that we are using this new facility.

to be able to help support our South Corridor, our BRT project, but also we

plan on, having this facility be one that will really service the fastest

growing area within the county, which is, which is, this kind of the southern

part in a municipal, municipalities in the southern part of the county.

We do have several, local bus routes as well, that, require, 60 foot

articulated buses to be able to serve.

And this will be again a great facility that will be closer to where those routes

originate from and still be in a position where we can actually use a battery

electric bus to provide an emissions free type of environment for those communities.

but also save energy.

taxpayer dollars over time, which is, which is always critical, making

sure that we are, are doing good site placement, for these types of

facilities to reduce overall costs.

this is the first time in the past 40 years that we've been in a position

to actually build a new operations center that services our, our buses

from a maintenance standpoint and overall operations standpoint.

From the construction timeline to features like lifts to reach the top of buses,

this facility is packed with innovations.

Inside and out, solar power, xeriscaping around the building,

everything to make this one of the most sustainable and efficient

transportation centers in the world.

The whole facility will be 8 or 9 buildings with over 400, 000 square

feet of space, a massive undertaking for any project, but in this case,

there were extra challenges that needed innovative solutions to solve.

Beyond having to compress a 40 acre project into 20 acres, they

were in completely uncharted waters for a critical part of the

building's design, fire protection.

So I asked WSP's Angel Chaviera about his role and some of the challenges they faced

to get a project like this off the ground.

Tell us about your role and what WSP is doing.

Yes, as the director said, basically, the county needed to pivot, so they

came to us to see if we could basically deliver this facility, and we took an

innovative approach, and because, again, what's critical is the schedule, so we

were basically tasked with the design of the facility, so WSP is basically

the designer, during the design phase, we did that in about 10, 10 months.

We went from a 15 percent conceptual design to a 100 percent set of plans,

and we had to overlap some phases in the project schedule in order to accelerate,

you know, and get to construction so that the facility could be opened up

in time, by when the buses were going to come, and, and that's basically

when the county is envisioning to start revenue service on the, BRT corridor.

Construction started on June 10th of this year, and WSP we're basically

doing construction administration, you know, reviewing shop drawings,

RFIs, And making sure assisting the contractor stay on, on track

Angel, as I was researching this, one other very, Innovative design I thought

was this retractable platform which is installed on on the bus rooftops where

the batteries are charged so that when the bus backs in the maintenance staff

can step directly on and off the roof.

Can you tell us about that and why that was included and what that's

going to do to make things better?

good question, Paul.

You did your research.

that's a very excellent feature that we introduced to this.

Obviously, you see that in, in rail and transit projects, and I

have a transit background myself, a rail and transit background.

So, in, in our team, WSP team basically wanted to bring lessons learned from

other projects, and, and, as the director said, we want to provide the

best facility possible for staff, to do their, you know, their daily work.

so this, this platform, retractable platform, provides the ability for

staff to do their job in a safe manner.

and basically without any, fall protection.

Which means it's hands free, right?

They're basically, you know, the, when the busback's in, the

platformers are retracted, the bus can pull back in, you know, once it's

docked, the, the platformers extend and they basically touch the bus.

They have a rubber, We have a compound that extends for the length

of the platform so it won't damage the bus and makes contacts and

that's how it knows where to stop.

Basically, people are able to step on and off and provide, you know, a working

platform where they can basically not have to worry about having fall

protection or ladders, which, again, is about efficiency, right, and safety.

So we introduced this element for those reasons.

And, and, and most of the equipment, Paul, is on top of the roof.

Okay.

that's where the panto graphs are and, and the fuel cells for the buses and the ac.

So it's basically, it affords the opportunity for staff to gain access

to those systems on top of them.

So, Angel, one of the interesting things about building a facility like this, not

only is the fact that you've got to get it rolling in the next year or two, right?

Portions will open next summer and then the whole thing will open in two years.

Okay.

But also, I'm sure, an innovative facility like this, you

came across some challenges.

Tell us about what they might have been and how you've addressed them.

Yeah, one in particular challenge that we faced was the fire

protection for the parking garage.

As the Director mentioned previously, the site was originally a much larger 40 acre

site, and it got reduced to 20 acres.

And in order for us to fit the entire program, We basically had to go vertical,

you know, trying to fit a hundred circulated buses in an addition, you know,

employee parking for all the employees.

We basically had to build a structure at one, on one level parking garage.

And basically, the program calls for the buses to charge on the first level.

we engaged the fire department at the very beginning and we developed a methodology.

We brought in our tunnel experts from WSP to basically develop a, methodology

A design methodology that we use on tunnels, and we basically develop

a model, and the model basically predicts, the curve, the heat curve

that is generated by these buses.

So, once we develop the heat curve and the methodology we presented it to the

fire department, given that there are no codes, we want to make sure that

they were on board with what we were doing in terms of analysis and design.

And when it came down to submitting the plans for permitting, we got it.

Basically, zero comments on the design because everything was vetted, with

the independent reviewer and, and the fire department, and what that

entailed was basically we provided several measures of protections.

One was a physical.

Meaning physical in terms of, clearances between the buses and the structure

itself, making sure that the, you know, that we had sufficient height between the

bottom of the structure and the buses.

The second was basically a fire sprinkler system that is partitioned in zones.

Obviously, being a large garage, we cannot have, the entire system

going up once because they're just, the volume of water is tremendous.

as you know, as you may know.

battery electric fires you cannot put out.

You can only contain.

So that the design methodology is basically to contain the fire, preventing

from spreading into other buses and limiting the damage to the structure.

And then the third phase that we did, Paul, is basically we're

adding a passive fire protection.

it's, it's basically to all the structure and this what it does is

insulates the structure from heat.

That way we prevent spalling and the heat getting to the structure.

We want to make sure that the structure integrally remains as is.

Eulois, you mentioned that this is not just going to be a bus garage where you

charge and maintain, but you're going to have other things going on there.

Tell us about that.

Right, what is an exciting aspect of this facility is that, we are,

going to be adding in additional support, types of, activities.

And so the biggest one is our, emergency, backup.

for bus operations.

And so you have to have that type of redundancy that's necessary,

especially in South Florida, where even though our weather is great, there

are times where you have inclement weather and you need to be prepared

to be able to respond effectively.

So we're excited about that.

We're also excited about the fact that we will have, more

administrative space, than we, what we previously have been, working with.

with, our three existing, bus garages.

this really needs to be a community asset.

So one, having the, space for training for our operators, but

also a communal space for, for the overall public is something that we've

included in this specific design.

So it can truly be an asset that can be considered one that's valuable,

for the surrounding neighborhood.

and, but also other amenities that sometimes you don't pay

attention to because we're so focused on having a facility just

to maintain our buses and the like.

but we're going to have a, we're going to have a space that is there

to maintain the gate arms that we're going to be using on our BRT system.

So that's important to have that type of, location for our crews to

be able to, consistently maintain those gate arms in an effective way.

But also, amenities for, for our.

employees that will be housed out of this facility, we anticipate of having

approximately 270 jobs, that are created, as a part of, building this, facility.

And it's important, that for all of those positions where people have to show up

to work, and, and our operators who are taxed every single day to do their job,

that they have places to relax, and alike, and, and, and wind down, from

their day, and so we are building, some unique spaces, driver lounges and the like

that will allow, folks to relax and then also building, a place for individuals

to take care of themselves and work out and have a wellness center as well.

So it's an opportunity to do what's best in the industry to take care of our, of

our employees so they can go out and do their jobs to the best of their ability.

That sounds exciting.

I hope in two years we can come down and show the world on our TV show,

some of the garage, because it sounds like it's going to be groundbreaking

technology and service for, you know, your customers as well as your employees.

Let's talk about what this is going to serve.

So you've got this phenomenal, cutting edge, state of the art

electric bus garage, charging facility, maintenance facility, plus

all your administrative offices.

And then that's going to serve your brand new BRT.

Tell us how that all ties together and what the BRT is going to look like.

For

we are very close to being substantially complete, with our 20 mile all battery

electric bus operated, bus rapid transit system, where we are building actually

what we call 14 iconic BRT stations, so these stations will we'll have, air

conditioned vestibules, we'll have, ticket vending machines and the like, we'll

be level platform boarding, have travel information, screens and the like, and,

we'll, all be covered, and one that's kind of climate controlled for, for customers.

So we're very excited about this.

We've been working very diligently on erecting all of these 14 stations and

it's amazing to see how people are now starting to react and understand

what we're actually building because it's not just your regular bus stop.

We are building something that is really going to be phenomenal and one

that is going to be at the highest levels of design and construction.

for this type of BRT service.

We are on track with being substantially complete with all 14 stations by

the end of, this year, with the intent of being in revenue service

at the beginning part of 2025.

And so that's why it's necessary to, to make sure that, we work with our partners

in the industry, WSP and the like, to be able to design the operations center.

And in a very expedited manner, but also to be able to bring on a contractor

to build this facility in accordance with the schedule that we've laid

out, we've also received two test buses, the 60 foot articulated buses.

These are New Flyer buses that are, again, all battery electric operated vehicles.

we are, in the initial stages of testing, not only the, range on, the specific

vehicle, but also how they interact with our BRT stations moving forward.

And, and our, our vendor, New Fly, has been doing a good job in keeping up

with their production schedules and the like to make sure we're staying on

track with the overall project schedule.

So, so we're excited about this project.

This project, again, is one of the corridors in our

People's Transportation Plan.

this project was funded, by the county at a hundred million dollars, by

the state, the Florida Department of Transportation, a hundred million,

and then FTA, at a hundred million.

And, we're working actively to bring this project to fruition and once it's built

and complete, When it gets into revenue service, it will be a game changer for

people living in the southern part of the county, where, somebody living in Florida

City, if they want to, travel to downtown, it's, it's essentially taking them,

an hour and 45 minutes, on a good day.

by this new service, this will reduce that travel time by over 30 percent.

And people will have around a 45 minute travel time from that

southern municipality that we have here in the county to downtown.

The other aspect of the corridor that we're building is that the 20 miles for

the BRT, we'll actually, end up connecting you to a new intermodal facility that

we're building that will be able to transfer people from the BRT service

on to our existing Metro Rail service.

and that way they can take our, our Metro Rail to go downtown and, and

to other, locations, between Dayland South and, and downtown, Miami.

So, so we're, we're excited about this and this is a project that the

community has been waiting on and, and we're really in a great position

to, Remain on budget and on schedule.

That's

wonderful, Eulois you really

have it all going on.

And thank you for taking this time today to share it with us,

Hey, thank you for listening to this really fascinating

episode of Transit Unplugged.

Hi, I'm Tris Hussey editor of the podcast.

And I'd like to thank our guests.

Eulois Cleckley and Angel Andre Cheverria for their time to talk to

us about this amazing electric bus charging and maintenance facility.

Now coming up next week, we go across the pond to Europe and Vienna.

We hear from Alexndra Rheingold, CEO of

The transit agency that provides multimodal solutions to this beautiful

and amazing city of 2 million people.

Transit Unplugged is brought to you by Modaxo.

At Modaxo, we're passionate about moving the world's people

and at Transit Unplugged.

We're passionate about telling those stories.

So until next week, ride safe and ride happy.