Mayor Alvin Brown was in attendance at a groundbreaking ceremony for the compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling facility and public access station at the Jacksonville Transportation Authority’s (JTA) Myrtle Avenue operations campus. Additional guests at the ceremony included JTA Chairman Scott L. McCaleb, JTA CEO Nathaniel P. Ford Sr., Clean Energy sr. VP Peter Grace and North Florida TPO Executive Director Jeff Sheffield.

The CNG project was awarded to Clean Energy Fuels Corp. for $8.1 million. The Public-Private Partnership (P3) with Clean Energy is the first of its kind for JTA. Clean Energy will design, build, operate and maintain the project during the 15-year agreement. The estimated completion date for the project is December 2015.

Over the next five years, JTA will replace 100 diesel buses with CNG buses. Many of the buses will support JTA’s 55-mile First Coast Flyer bus rapid transit system.