Waterloo Region has awarded the contract for a new, $104,330,000 Grand River Transit bus maintenance facility. The new facility, located on Northfield Drive in Waterloo, will be built by Magil Construction Ontario Inc. Magil’s Ontario operation is based in London, Ontario.

The contract includes the construction of a new 305,000 square foot bus storage and maintenance facility that will accommodate both regular and articulated buses. The construction of this facility will provide the necessary fleet maintenance and storage required to meet transit ridership goals established in the Regional Transportation Master Plan and the Grand River Transit Business Plan. Construction of the facility will begin this spring and with completion in summer 2022.

Regional Councillor Tom Galloway told Link2Build that $87 million of the budgeted cost comes from the Canada Ontario Infrastructure program. He stressed that the facility has “growth space,” and added that it is “well positioned to provide more maintenance to buses dedicated to rural routes” in the Region. The Region of Waterloo includes the three cities of Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge, as well as four largely rural townships – Woolwich, Wilmot, Wellesley and North Dumfries.

Galloway added that the new facility “will be able to service articulated and electric vehicles.”

Waterloo Regional Chair Karen Redman told Link2Build, "The construction bus maintenance facility is a significant component of our transit system as we move forward to modernize and expand our GRT system with electric buses as well as articulating buses.  It is an great example of Regional government identifying local needs and working in partnership with the Provincial and Federal governments to achieve investment in infrastructure."

Waterloo Regional Council also awarded a contract valued at $2,142,619 to Associated Engineering Ltd. for Professional Consulting Services for the detailed design and services during construction for Operational Biosolids Storage at the Galt Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) and Waterloo WWTP, in the cities of Cambridge and Waterloo.

And looking further ahead, Regional councillors voted to support the Waterloo Regional Tourism Marketing Corporation's research assessing the demand for meetings and conventions in the area. The purpose of the study is to understand future demand for a major convention facility locally and to provide a breakdown of that demand by event type, event size and frequency of occurrence. The report from council noted, “If the study indicates significant potential for Waterloo Region to attract new meetings and convention business with a larger facility, more study will be required.”