City plans Nelson Service Center project groundbreaking on April 25

Center is a combined Solid Waste & Fleet maintenance facility

Marlene Feist, Utilities Communications Manager, 509.625.6505

Thursday, April 17, 2014 at 4:53 p.m.

During Earth Week, the City of Spokane will break ground on its new combined Solid Waste Management & Fleet maintenance facility, known as the Nelson Service Center.  The celebration is set for Friday, April 25, at 11 a.m. at the building site at 915 N. Nelson.

Among other things, the new facility will enable the City to convert its solid waste fleet to compressed natural gas from diesel fuel, a move that’s both environmentally and financially responsible.

 

Construction on the two-story, 57,500-square-foot Nelson Service Center is expected to continue until late summer or early fall of 2015. The facility, which will cost about $14 million, will be located on the south side of a 32-acre, City-owned site in the Chief Garry Park Neighborhood that’s west of Nelson and north of Broadway.

The City used a design-build approach for the facility. Garco Construction and Bernardo Wills Architects LLC, both of Spokane, are the building’s contractor and designer. This is the first design-build project undertaken by the City. The City selected the design-build approach to speed construction time and maintain better control over costs.

 

Overall, the center will:

  • Consolidate repair and maintenance of the City’s large vehicle fleet in one location, from three today.
  • Consolidate Solid Waste and Street operations with Fleet operations, including fueling stations, vehicle washing, and repair facilities, resulting in reduced travel time and fuel costs.
  • Replace aging facilities that are not appropriate for current use and are exceedingly inefficient with new adequate, safe, and secure facilities for employees and improved operations.
  • Free up the sites of current facilities for redevelopment. Allow for the conversion to compressed natural gas.

The City anticipates that it will generate savings over 10 years to cover most of the cost of construction, including $2 million from operational efficiencies and about $7 million from converting its Solid Waste fleet from diesel fuel to compressed natural gas. The City expects to convert that fleet over a 10-year period. Once the entire solid waste fleet is replaced, fuel savings could total up to $1 million annually.

 

The City identified the need to consolidate these functions to gain efficiencies and improved operations as early as 1983. A number of plans to achieve that goal were conceived over the last three decades, and today the City is implementing a revised, cost-effective plan to achieve those goals.

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