$14 Million Transit Center Awarded to Shockey Team

December 16, 2011

Harrisonburg, Va. - The Harrisonburg Department of Public Transportation (HDPT) has entered into an agreement with Howard Shockey & Sons, Inc. of Winchester, Virginia to design and build a new home base for the city's growing infrastructure needs.

HDPT's new Administration & Maintenance facility will be located on a 13 acre-site at the intersection of East Washington Street and Vine Street. The site is owned by the city and houses the Department of Public Transportation facilities, the central garage and water storage for the City of Harrisonburg. The $14 million project includes the demolition, design, and construction of an administration and maintenance building, service bays, fueling station, wash bays, and storage area. Two abandoned open reservoirs on the site will be renovated for parking.

Harrisonburg Transit routes serve both the citizens of Harrisonburg and the JMU community.

"As our transit services have expanded over the past few decades, the need for a new facility has become quite obvious," said Reggie Smith, Harrisonburg Director of Public Transportation. We are excited to get this project underway and work with Shockey to complete construction that will help us better do our job.

The project has been procured under Virginia's Public-Private Education and Infrastructure Act (PPEA), which was adopted by the Virginia General Assembly in 2002. HDPT will be Shockey's 11th project using the PPEA procurement method, says Jeff Boehm, Vice President at Howard Shockey & Sons, Inc. "The public-private partnership is a win for everyone because the design-build structure allows for a more collaborative process, often enhancing project deliverables and delivering the project on a faster schedule," says Boehm.

HDPT received seven proposals for consideration. The team led by Howard Shockey & Sons, Inc. of Winchester, VA, in association with RNL Design of McLean, Maintenance Design Group of Baltimore, and Valley Engineering of Harrisonburg was selected to build the facility.

Construction of the new transit center may begin as early as the summer of 2012. The project will create numerous construction trades jobs, and will contribute to the overall health of the Harrisonburg economy. Construction funding confirmation from state and federal sources is pending and the final construction schedule will be dependent upon that funding as well as approval of the local share by City Council.

Shockey, the general contractor on the project, recently completed a similar project for Richmond-based GRTC Transit System. That project was completed six weeks early and came in $1.8 million under budget. GRTC has cut its energy usage by nearly 50 percent a year since moving into the building in January 2010. The Richmond Transit project won the national "Best of the Best" award in the industrial category as awarded by McGraw-Hill Construction. Established in 1896, Howard Shockey & Sons, Inc. provides general construction, construction management, design-build, and historic rehabilitation services in Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland. Mid-Atlantic Construction ranks Shockey among the top 25 contractors in a five-state region.

The City of Harrisonburg is centrally located in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. It is home to approximately 48,000 people. The city's department of transportation carried more than two million riders last year. Public Transit saves fuel, reduces road traffic and decreases demand for public parking. More information about the HDPT is online at www.hdpt.com.

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Media Contact: Kathy Moore, Moore Public Relations (540.886.3131) kathy@moorepublicrelations.com

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