After months of looking for a possible alternative site and not finding one, Mountain Transit’s management and board have decided to rebuild at the current Crestline location, making the new transportation center bigger and better.

A fire on Aug. 17, 2019, badly damaged the existing building in the 600 block of Forest Shade Road, closing the office to staff and the public. The bus maintenance area was not damaged and routine bus maintenance work continued as well as parking for the buses at the current site.

“Due to a small fire in our Crestline facility this morning (8/17/19), which affected our main servers, dispatchers will temporarily be unable to book additional Dial-a-Ride reservations until the fire department clears the building and our IT team can access the damage,” a spokesperson told The Alpine Mountaineer at the time. “This will affect Dial-a-Ride service system wide (Big Bear and Rim) as the main servers are hosted in our Crestline facility.”

Sandy Benson, Mountain Transit’s general manager, told The Alpine Mountaineer that the current structures, including the maintenance building and the general office, will be torn down and that plans are for new construction to begin sometime in April or early May. Work is expected to take six to seven months.

The new design will include one main building, with two maintenance bays on the first floor and offices on the second, with a bank of solar cells facing south located on the roof. The two bus lifts will be 27.5 feet long. A dedicated bus wash area will be included.

Plans call for 13 covered parking areas for the buses, something the current location lacks.

The current maintenance bays can’t accommodate Mountain Transit’s longer buses, but the new bays will handle all bus lengths, Benson said.

“During the winter, our maintenance guys have had to do some repairs and maintenance in the snow,” she said. “Now, they won’t have to.”

Kadtec Design & Engineering in Blue Jay developed the architectural plans for the new bus center. The new look is sort of a modern treatment of an alpine mountain look to the building.

The second floor will include four offices, a conference room, a kitchen area and a large wooden deck that will look out to Lake Gregory. The deck will be large enough to give room for outdoor meetings, when appropriate. An elevator will provide access to the second floor.

No estimate for the cost was announced at the time. Benson said Mountain Transit is now seeking bids from local contractors for the construction.
“This should meet our needs for a long time to come,” Benson added.