[IMAGE]Butler-facility-full.jpg[/IMAGE]Pennsylvania Department of Transportation announced Wednesday, that the Butler Transit Authority’s (BTA) Transit Center is among the transit projects in Pennsylvania funded in part with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds. BTA was placed on Penn DOT’s “wish list” of transit projects in January 2009.

The transit authority will receive $5,340,569 to complete phase I of its Transit Center. Located in Butler’s Pullman Center Redevelopment area, BTA’s Transit Center will begin construction in the fall of 2009.

Phase I of the facility will consist of a 7,000-square-foot office building and a maintenance and wash bay building, as well as a storage area for the Authority’s buses and Butler County’s Butler Area Rural Transit (BART) shared-ride buses.

Phase II of the facility will encompass the enclosure of the storage area, construction of a wait area for interconnectivity with local transit and planned commuter service and park-n-ride.

The new facility will be the first transit center in the state of Pennsylvania to be LEED certified. It will receive a Silver LEED Certification for use of geothermal heating and cooling as well as other energy conservation and environmental friendly principals.

The design will reduce the authority’s future operating costs by 20 percent to 25 percent. The green building principals will reduce energy costs by 50 percent.

For up‐to‐date information on this project and others, visit www.butlertransitauthority.com.