battalion51
Engineer
The Tri-Rail station in Boca Raton won't be closing after all, just moving across the street. The new facility will be a lorge intermodal complex, here's a quote from Tri-Rail on the new station:
SFRTA/TRI-RAIL ACQUIRES SITE FORNEW STATION IN BOCA RATON
South Florida Regional Transportation Authority/Tri-Rail has completed the purchase of a 6.68 acre site in Boca Raton for the development of an Intermodal Transit Facility. The property is part of the T-Rex Development and is located immediately south of Yamato Road on the west side of the South Florida Rail Corridor. The property was purchased from Boca Village at a cost of $2.7 million.
"On behalf of the Board of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority/Tri-Rail, I would like to recognize the efforts of a number of individuals who worked through a long and arduous negotiation to bring this acquisition to fruition. They are James Cummings, Allen Harper and David Rush, all members of Tri-Rail’s property acquisition committee, Boca Raton Mayor Steve Abrams, FAU President Frank Brogan, and Boca Raton Chamber President Mike Arts." said SFRTA/Tri-Rail Chair Michael D. Masanoff.
"The City has worked with Tri-Rail to make this station a reality," said Mayor Abrams, "and we are pleased that Tri-Rail is going to be able to make that happen." The City is contributing $750,000 to the construction of the new station.
The estimated cost of developing the property into a mixed-use transit facility is set at approximately $10.28 million. Access to the site is via three roads from the west. The construction of a southern road will greatly improve access from Spanish River Boulevard and will provide more direct service to Florida Atlantic University (FAU), Lynn University and Palm Beach Community College (PBCC). There will be a direct connection to Yamato Road via a "right in/ right out" and a perimeter loop road will allow vehicles to drop off passengers then return to Congress Avenue to go west on Yamato Road.
"I commend the Tri-Rail Authority for closing on the 6.68 acres on the T-Rex site," commented Mr. Arts. "It is very aggressive and progressive of them to bring this convenience to the working base of our community at T-Rex and the Arvida site and also to provide a location that is more accessible to the students at FAU, Lynn University, and PBCC."
Phase 1, scheduled to open in Fall 2004, includes five bus bays, automobile drop offs on the north side of the property, 183 parking spaces, boarding platforms connected via a covered walkway across the LWDD Canal and the FPL/Arvida parcel, an entry portal adjacent to the property line, and landscaped green space and pathways.
Phase 2 will include the additional amenities of 20,000 square feet of office space and a joint development provision with 40,000-50,000 square feet of commercial space potentially rising as high as six stories, and additional surface parking.
The construction of the new station in Boca Raton is part of Segment 5, the final phase of a $333 million project to double track the South Florida Rail Corridor. Once completed, Tri-Rail trains will operate on 20-minute headways during rush hour, will run later in the evening and more frequently on the weekends. It is expected that Tri-Rail’s ridership of approximately 10,000 people a day will triple by the year 2006.
