photo by: City of Lawrence

A slide of a city staff presentation shows components of the recommended design for the city's new bus station.

City leaders will soon decide on the design of the city’s new bus station and the location and design of a smaller bus transfer location downtown.

As part of its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission will select the designs and location, then consider moving forward with a $1.03 million contract with Wendel Companies for the final design and construction administration services for both projects. The location for the main bus station was decided two years ago, but the new location for the downtown bus transfer area will be decided at Tuesday’s meeting.

The city has budgeted $9.2 million for the new bus station and the downtown transfer area. The city and the University of Kansas coordinate their bus routes, and in 2019 the City Commission settled on locating the bus station on KU property on the southeast corner of Bob Billings Parkway and Crestline Drive. The options for the new location of the downtown bus transfer area include city-owned parallel parking areas and parking lots downtown.

The city will pay for and own the bus station and the university will donate the land for the project, according to a city staff memo. The bus station will include 10-12 bus bays, a covered waiting area, bike parking and a 4,000-square-foot administrative building that will include a customer service area, according to the memo. There are several potential designs for the bus station that arrange the various components of the station in different ways.

The consultant-recommended option, option four, would be the least expensive option at an estimated cost of $6.78 million. It includes only 10 bus bays instead of 12, with the option to expand the platform and canopy to add two additional bays. Instead of constructing an entirely new building, the proposal would renovate an existing building on the site.

The downtown bus transfer area will move from the current location along the side of the street in the 700 block of Vermont Street to a new downtown location in August 2022. The bus transfer area will include five bus bays, a covered waiting area, bike parking and a restroom for bus operators.

Potential sites for the downtown transfer location include city-owned parking lots in the 800 block of Vermont Street, the 1000 block of Vermont Street and the 800 block of New Hampshire Street. There are options that would be along the street and ones that would take over all or a portion of a city parking lot.

The consultant-recommended option, option 1A, would be located in the 800 block of Vermont Street and would not fully take over a parking lot, but would eliminate one of the four rows of angled parking in the lot and a row of on-street parallel parking, for a net loss of 40 parking spaces once spaces currently being taken up by bus transfers in the 700 block are reestablished. The recommended design is the least expensive of the options and is estimated to cost $1.8 million.

photo by: City of Lawrence

A slide of a city staff presentation shows components of the recommended design for the downtown bus transfer area.

The city held meetings, conducted surveys and did other outreach to get input from the public about the design of the bus station and the design and location of the downtown bus transfer area. A common concern was the loss of parking downtown to accommodate the new downtown transfer area. The other options would result in the loss of 76, 49 or 24 spaces, as compared with the 40 spaces that would be lost by the recommended design. The cost estimate of the design that would result in the loss of only 24 spaces, design 1B, is more expensive than the recommended option, with an estimated cost of about $2.33 million.

According to the memo, options 1A and 1B both provide the safest design for bus and pedestrian movements, create a public green space near Ninth and Vermont, provide the first fully protected bikeway or “cycle track” in the downtown area, and maintain the possibility of redeveloping the parking lot in the future. City staff state that 1A is the preferred option for the following reasons:

• The bus platform and sidewalk area on option 1A is 5 feet wider than option 1B, creating more space for comfortable pedestrian movements.

• Option 1A maintains the center turn lane for deliveries for nearby businesses.

• Option 1A maintains the parallel parking on the west side of Vermont Street, which is safer for southbound bicyclists than angled parking.

The city contracted with Wendel Companies in March, and the company has almost completed the first component design services and engineering for the project. The cost of the first component was $143,220, and the proposed addition to the contract for the final design and construction manager services that is being considered Tuesday would be another $1.03 million for a total of about $1.17 million. It’s estimated the contract for the project’s construction will be awarded in early 2022, and the project will be completed by August 2022.

The Lawrence City Commission will meet virtually at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday, and some staff will be in place at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St. The public may attend the meeting in person at City Hall or participate in the meeting virtually by following directions included in the commission’s meeting agenda, which is available on the city’s website, Lawrenceks.org.