Brandon Garage Project
In February 2014, Winnipeg Transit opened Brandon Garage. The new bus storage facility is approximately 135,000 sq. ft. and can accommodate up to 153 regular 40 foot transit buses. The garage was built to meet our anticipated fleet expansion over the next 20-30 years.
The facility, which took under two years to construct, was built as a Design-Build process and cost approximately $22 million. The building, targeting LEED Silver Certification, was built using energy and environmental design features.
Construction facts
- 44 metric tonnes out of a total of 74 metric tonnes of waste was diverted from landfills to recycling facilities. That is equivalent to the weight of 24 grey elephants
- 25% of all construction materials were made from recycled content!
- 75% of the construction materials were purchased or produced locally in order to reduce the environmental impact from transportation (within 800km for road transportation or 2400km for rail).
Environmental facts
- Promote active transportation providing bicycle storage and parking spots reserved for car pooling
- Promote biodiversity and save water by planting native vegetation that does not require any irrigation
- Mitigate Urban Heat Island Effect using light colors on roof, grey concrete pavement and vegetation
- Save energy with automatic controlled interior lighting and introduction of daylight into the regularly occupied areas of the building.
- Reduce ozone depletion by using HFC refrigerants in all cooling equipment
- Save potable water with low flow fixtures, automatic flush valves and water fountains that reduces total potable water consumption by more than 30%
- High efficiency lighting system with T5 fluorescents and LED fixtures
- High efficiency heating system consisting of:
- Heat Recovery Ventilation units that recover the heat from exhaust air to preheat supply air saving energy.
- Ventilation system controlled by demand and exhaust gases monitoring
- Overhead doors equipped with air curtains to hold the warm air inside the building
- Under-slab heating system
- Wall panels with an R20 insulation value
- Recycling storage bins to accommodate recycling from the office area, as well as the bus servicing area.
- Four full equipped Electrical Charging stations for Electric Buses to promote Zero Emission Vehicles
The energy efficient design provides a 21% reduction in electrical consumption and 45% reduction in natural gas consumption compared to a traditional building of similar size and use. Brandon Garage avoids over 950 tonnes of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gases each year compared to a traditional building of similar size and use.